


A Family Bond: A Like Father, Like Son sequel

by GreyWolfGhost



Series: Like Father, Like Son [3]
Category: Castle
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Aftermath of a Case, American Sign Language, Artists, Best Friends, Brother-Sister Relationships, Childhood, Childhood Friends, Childhood Trauma, Comic, Coming of Age, Deaf Character, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Fatherhood, Friendship, Gen, Grandchildren, Grandmothers, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Graphic Novel, Growing Up, Injury Recovery, Kidnapping, Major Original Character(s), Manhattan, Mystery, New York City, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Parent-Child Relationship, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Parents, Protective Siblings, Protectiveness, Psychologists & Psychiatrists, Recovery, Season/Series 02, Sherlock Holmes & John Watson Friendship, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2020-07-27 15:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 108,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20048056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreyWolfGhost/pseuds/GreyWolfGhost
Summary: Finally back home with his family, Rome, Castle's 10-year-old son struggles to put the events of his kidnapping behind him. With the help of those closest to him, he is slowly returning to his old self as Castle's creative, mischievous, and smart-alec mini-me. Follows directly along with season 2. Third in 'Like Father Like Son' series. Work in progress originally posted to FanFiction.net.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So here we go, folks. This is a continuation of 'Like Father, Like son' and 'The Heat Draws the Storm.' This fic will follow Rome and of course the characters of Castle through Season 2 which was actually one of my favorite seasons. It literally picks up right after the events of 'The Heat Draws the Storm', we're talking maybe a week and a half or so after that fics conclusion and picks up right where Season 2 in the show starts.
> 
> I hope you all had a chance to read that fic and are following from that fic to this one.

"So Rome, how have you been feeling?"

Rome picked up the puzzle piece and carefully placed it in its correct spot before looking up at Dr. Goldberg. He had been seeing the psychologist Dr. Pillar had recommended for a little over two weeks. He hadn't really wanted to go. His dad had pleaded with him but in the end, he resorted to putting his foot down and insisting; a rarity.

He knew Rome needed to talk to someone and even though Rome had been reluctant at first, he felt really comfortable with Dr. Goldberg and felt at ease opening up to her about what he had been through and how he was coping with it.

It also helped that, in addition to having a doctorate in Adolescent trauma, Dr. Goldberg was also certified in ASL, so the two of them were able to communicate easily and he could talk to her without worrying about a translator butting in. He liked his interpreter Mrs. Blackstone, but really didn't want her involved in this. He definitely wasn't ready for his school to be part of his kidnapping.

Of course, the school had been informed about what had happened to Rome; the teachers needed to be aware, so Castle had called for a meeting with Rome's teachers. Included were his guidance counselor, the school nurse, and Mr. Simmons and they discussed why Rome had been absent in the days following Labor Day weekend, what he had gone through (basics only) and what the school might expect.

The school was in shock understandably, Simmons most of all because he was the one who allowed Jordan Carlson into the school in the first place. He couldn't stop apologizing to Castle over and over.

All the staff stepped up, promising Castle that they would do all they could to make Rome's transition back into school as easy as possible.

Rome had only suffered a couple of break downs in school and things were certainly getting better for the ten-year-old, but he still shied away from the dark. He also started shaking when he heard or felt certain footsteps and had to really fight jumping or even panicking when someone touched him.

Rome took a deep breath and looked at Dr. Goldberg's expectant and comforting face. He sighed.

"Better I guess. The nightmares aren't as bad, I mean not as often I should say. When I do get them they're still pretty bad." He paused. "The other night I had a really bad one, almost fell out of bed again, but dad got smart, he's been making me sleep on the bottom bunk lately and he even put a bumper on my bed, had one when I was little, it's kind of embarrassing to need one now. But I guess it's better than falling out of bed all the time"

Dr. Goldberg placed her puzzle piece in a corner spot and nodded.

"Do you want to tell me about the dream? I know we discussed them last time, but I'm curious to hear if they are more of the same or more elaborate."

"It's always the same; I'm back in the factory, I can feel the vibrations of footsteps coming." Rome rubbed his wrists, the bandage had come off a few days before, but the indent from the zip-ties was still visible. It was just as Dr. Pillar had warned, there was a good chance he'd have the scars from his ordeal forever. "Sometimes I can still feel the zip-ties, my wrists start burning. I was heading to lunch with my friends the other day, the janitor was picking up something from his storage room, a pile of stuff and he was using zip-ties to keep them all together. I saw them and seriously couldn't breathe…my wrists were on fire and I thought I was suffocating."

Dr. Goldberg looked at him carefully, her eyes fully of sympathy.

"What happened next?"

"My friend Joey, he knew something was wrong, didn't know what it was, but he pushed me into the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. It took a few minutes, but I guess I calmed down."

"Speaking of your friends Rome, have you told them what happened?" he shook his head hurriedly "why not?"

"Dunno. The time hasn't seemed right. My sister told them I was sick and that's why I missed the sleepover at Todd's and going to the shore with them and was out for so many days. Joey seemed to buy it, but Todd, Kevin, and Gage, they've known me the longest, they knew I was hiding something. I think Todd feels hurt that I haven't told him, it's like he knows I'm lying."

"How long have the group of you boys been friends?"

"Todd, Gage, and I have been friends since the first day of preschool." Rome grinned at the memory "this bigger kid was hogging the tricycle and I was waiting to ride it. I don't even remember his name now. He left to get some water or something so I took the opportunity to take the trike, I mean I'd waited my turn, seemed fair enough. Gage was waiting too, so I told him I'd ride it for a few minutes then he could take his turn. So I did a couple of laps and let Gage have his turn, but the bigger kid came back and walked right over to Gage and pushed him off the trike. I went to go help Gage up and the kid pushed me too, then Todd came over, he was the same size as this kid so the kid couldn't push him around even though he tried. When the kid pushed Todd, Todd screamed bloody murder, which brought the teachers over."

"Sounds like you guys became the three musketeers?"

Rome nodded

"We kinda did. Todd looked out for Gage and me, then a few weeks into school Kevin started. He joined us pretty quick, I don't even remember how."

"Can I give my opinion on something Rome? Coming from an adult's point of view?" Rome nodded "you should wait until you feel ready to tell them, but I do think your friends deserve to know." Dr. Goldberg paused "it doesn't even have to be at school Rome, it can be at home or some other place you feel most comfortable. But just from what you've told me about your friends, I think they'll not only understand, but they'd want to know." She smiled "you said you're the youngest of the group?"

"By almost a full year, I started preschool early. Dad kind of got the dates mixed up and by the time he realized it, it was kinda too late, I was already enrolled at three." Rome paused and gave a half-smile "'cause I'm the youngest they're kinda overprotective of me…" his smile went away quickly

"Rome?"

"My friend Todd, he's the biggest goofball, but he's also…" Rome's voice cracked a little, then faded.

"He's what Rome?" Dr. Goldberg pushed.

"He's really sensitive, he'll never admit it, but he is. I don't want him to join me on this level, I don't want him to be afraid that walking down the street could be dangerous, that someone might snatch him."

"So it sounds like you're just as protective of your friends as they are of you."

"What if they find out what happened, then their parents get scared…I mean what if Kevin had gone to karate with me that night, M might have snatched him too. So what if my friends' parents suddenly don't want them to be friends with me, thinking it's not safe. M wouldn't have taken me if it wasn't for who my dad is, what if they blame us and are worried it's going to happen again."

Dr. Goldberg smiled gently, she knew Rome's fears were unfounded, but they did have merit, he was only ten, after all, she had to remember to put herself in that mindset. He was clearly afraid, but it was great to see he was opening up and admitting that.

"Rome, you need to remember that what happened to you was a one in a million occurrence. Your friends are not going to suddenly stop being your friends because you were kidnapped and that goes for their parents, no one is to blame in this whole thing except the man who took you."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive Rome."

What Rome didn't know was that his dad under the guidance of Dr. Goldberg had actually already talked to the parents of his group of close friends. He thought it was only fair that they be made aware, Kevin's parents especially.

All were surprised and offered whatever support the Castle family needed. None of the boys had been told, of course, Castle respected Rome's wishes on that front to keep it from his friends for a little longer.

"I…I just don't want to lose them…we've been friends for so long."

"You won't lose them Rome, I know you won't." Dr. Goldberg paused "Rome, have you spoken to your father about how you're feeling about your friends?"

Rome shook his head a little.

"No, not really, he knows I'm nervous to tell them, but I…I don't want to worry him anymore. He's gotten so…so overprotective since this whole thing happened and I feel really bad."

"You know what we call this Rome?" He shook his head again. "We call this progress. Last week when you came here I don't think I could get you to say two words. Now you're opening up about how scared you are and how worried you are. And now telling me how worried you are about your dad and how you feel bad; it's progress. It takes someone very mature and grown-up to admit that kind of fear and you should be very proud of yourself."

"I don't feel very proud," Rome admitted "I feel guilty. My dad's like a big kid, he's always been like that since I was little. He's a dad when he needs to be, but he's more than that, he's like our best friend, y'know to me and my sister…now since this whole thing, he's more like a dad…a worried dad. He's so overprotective now and that's my fault."

"That overprotectiveness is probably going to stay Rome. But the guilt shouldn't, I can bet that your father feels just as guilty as you do."

"Why should he feel guilty?" Rome asked, confused.

"From a parent's perspective Rome, because you know I have two little girls about your age. When something happens to our children we feel responsible. If one of my girls skins her knee when she falls off her bike, I blame myself for her falling, even though it was something neither of us had any control over. This situation is the same way Rome, the protectiveness your father is displaying is his own guilt that he didn't protect you well enough, he probably thinks he failed you in some capacity."

Rome's eyes went wide with surprise.

"But he didn't fail me; he came and got me."

"Exactly," Dr. Goldberg paused "he didn't fail you, that means neither of you should continue to put blame on yourselves. The only one who is to blame is the man who kidnapped you."

Rome nodded slowly.

"I guess"

"It will take some time Rome, guilt is a normal emotion, it may not be the right emotion, but we all feel guilty about things that are out of our control."

"Will it ever go away?"

"It will just remember you and your father have nothing to feel guilty about." Dr. Goldberg finished, she looked at her watch and smiled at her young client. "Looks like we're running a little late here Rome, your dad should be outside waiting for you."

Rome nodded his thanks and headed out to the waiting room where his dad was in fact waiting, his dad and someone he didn't expect, Gina.

"Gina!" Rome exclaimed running to his former stepmother as she lifted him up in a tight hug. She had been over the loft constantly after finding out what had happened to Rome. She understood why Castle couldn't tell her, but wished he had so she could be there for her ex-husband and his children. She had been horrified that Rome had been kidnapped and that he had nearly died as a result.

"Hi, little one." She replied hugging him close

"Mr. Castle, how are you?" Dr. Goldberg said

"Well, Dr. Goldberg." Castle replied, "this is Gina Caldwell she's my publisher and er, uh."

"His ex-wife" Gina explained rolling her eyes at Castle who grinned sheepishly. Dr. Goldberg reached forward and shook Gina's outstretched hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, Dr. Goldberg," she said.

"Likewise. It is so nice to see that Rome has such a strong family support system."

Gina nodded and gently set Rome down on the floor.

"Romey guess what," Gina said to him "I'm going to take you to get some new art supplies and then we'll get some ice cream."

Rome nodded but looked at his dad wondering why his dad wasn't coming too.

"I've got to go to the 12th kiddo." Castle explained off of Rome's look.

"The 12th? Rome asked

"Photoshoot for the magazine that's covering the launch of Heat Wave."

"Oh,"

Castle reached over and hugged Rome tight.

"Have fun with Gina I'll see you tonight okay doc?" Rome nodded.

Castle looked at Gina "Thanks I appreciate this."

"Anytime Richard," Gina replied she took Rome's hand and shook it a little. "Ready to rock and roll Romey?"

He nodded and gave his dad and doctor a wave before following Gina out of the office.

Once they had left Castle looked at Dr. Goldberg.

"So how's my boy doing?" He asked cautiously.

Dr. Goldberg smiled gently and gestured for Castle to come into her office, Castle did so, timidly, like a kid who just got called down to the principal's office.

"He's doing much better Mr. Castle he's opening up and admitting what is scaring or bothering him. It is rare for kids who go through what he went through to make this much progress so quickly. There is still a lot of work to get through, but I am impressed so far."

"He's still having the nightmares, still gets tense when someone touches him and he doesn't know they're coming. At night I go to check on him he's all curled up in a tiny ball, shaking and sucking his thumb. I can hear him whimpering and crying. I go in there and touch his back and he jumps but stops whimpering."

"Mr. Castle is going to take time it has only been three weeks. Today he opened up and admitted a few things that I think the two of you need to talk about. He's afraid that you have become overprotective of him and Alexis because you blame yourself for what happened. He blames himself and doesn't want you to blame yourself."

"Oh Rome," Castle breathed

"He is also afraid to tell his friends."

"That I knew I've already spoken to their parents, they haven't told the kids. We've all agreed to just wait until Rome is ready."

"He may be getting close to that readiness Mr. Castle the thing that is holding him back is he is afraid that his friends' parents will blame him and blame you for what happened and not want their children to be around Rome. He can't seem to understand that this was an unexpected and very rare event. I would consider talking with Rome about it explain to him that you have already spoken to the parents, maybe even have the parents of his closest friends speak to him. It might be the only thing that will reassure him that this whole event will not destroy his friendships."

Castle rubbed his chin and took a deep breath.

"Have you had many of these kinds of cases Dr. Goldberg?"

"Kidnapping cases Mr. Castle?" she asked and he nodded "this is going to sound horrible, but unfortunately no, I have not handled many children who have been kidnapped like Rome." Castle raised his eyebrow in confusion "unfortunately it is extremely rare for a child to go through what Rome did and survive. Kidnapping by a stranger rarely ends as well as it did for Rome. So, therefore, I do not typically have the opportunity to help those children. Custodial kidnappings are quite common and I do have many children that are brought to me following those type of kidnappings to help them come to terms with the ordeal."

Castle coughed a little, clearing his throat.

"How many Doctor?" he asked, "how many stranger kidnapping kids have you worked with?"

"Including your son? In my twenty-six, going on twenty-seven years of this practice, I have worked with three children who were kidnapped by a stranger and rescued in time. There are times I wonder if that number is so low because kidnapping rates are low and therefore I am thankfully not needed or…" Dr. Goldberg left that sentence unfinished but Castle understood.

"My son is lucky then,"

"Extremely Mr. Castle. And what's more, he has something some of the children who are brought to me do not have."

"What's that?"

"A family and an extended family that cares deeply for him. The fact that your ex-wife picked him up today, that your mother has picked him up and dropped him off many times, and the fact that the detective who you worked with to find him calls to see how he is doing, shows just how lucky Rome is."

Castle stared at Dr. Goldberg,

"The detective?"

"Yes, Detective Beckett? She was the arresting officer correct and from what I gather a friend of the family?"

Castle nodded slowly. He still didn't understand Beckett; she was mad at him again yet she was still checking in on Rome. Castle glanced at his watch, he had to head to the precinct for the photoshoot. He knew Beckett wasn't going to like that any more than she liked him still being around, but it might give him the chance to ask her. Maybe even thank her for continuing to look after Rome, maybe there was hope for an amicable relationship, even if it was just concerning Rome.

"Th…thank you, Dr. Goldberg,"

"Anytime Mr. Castle, so I will see Rome next Monday?" Castle nodded "excellent." She paused "and Mr. Castle he is making progress, he is getting better. It will take time, but that strong support system I see, that is what will help him get better quicker."

Castle nodded again and gave the doctor a wave as he headed out of the office and down to the first floor to catch a taxi. Rome was doing better, that was true, but he still wasn't himself, he was quieter, more withdrawn, and Castle knew there wasn't much he could do to help his son, only time would be able to heal Rome, but for Castle that was too much time, too long for his son to be hurting.

Xxx

Rome meanwhile was actually doing much better, at least for the moment. Gina tended to spoil Rome and Alexis. But unlike their mom, her spoiling went with things she knew they could not only use but things they could actually treasure. It had caused a lot of tension between Castle and Gina only Rome and Alexis didn't know the half of it.

They didn't know that for Christmas one year Gina bought Alexis a doll while Castle already had one stashed away and an argument had ensued on whose doll she would get to keep. Or that same Christmas, the large Lego set she had gotten for Rome, not knowing that Castle had already purchased the same set.

Or a fight over Rome going to a Comic Book convention. Gina had gotten the family, mainly Rome, VIP passes to the east coast version of ComiCon for Rome's birthday.

Castle had been trying for weeks to get even two of those tickets so even though he was happy Gina got them because it meant Rome would get to go to something he'd been dying to go to for years. Castle couldn't help the fact that he was jealous that Gina had managed to do what he couldn't i.e. get the tickets. That had led to yet another fight about who would give Rome the tickets.

Castle won the argument but Rome knew the tickets were from both his dad and his stepmom.

So Gina did her best to spoil Rome and Alexis when she could when their father couldn't interfere. That was the plan for Rome and the afternoon.

As she and Rome walked hand in hand down the sidewalk heading to Rome's favorite art store a few blocks from the loft, Gina held his hand tight, painfully aware of her surroundings.

Castle wasn't the only one who had become overprotective of Rome. Gina watched the other New Yorkers like a hawk, fully prepared to protect Rome no matter what. If someone came at them, they wouldn't get anywhere near him. She glanced down at him every few steps, even though she felt his hand in hers she wanted to be sure each time.

Of course, looking at Rome's hand led her to his wrists and the scars that the zip ties had left. A permanent reminder of what he had gone through. His watch covered up the scar on his right wrist, but his bracelet was so loose-fitting on his small wrists that it left the scar visible. Gina tensed a little and did her best to hold back tears. Rome felt the tension in his step mom's hand and looked up at her.

"Gina?" He asked, "are you okay?"

She put on a warm smile

"Of course Romey, just thinking."

Rome looked at his wrist and understood instantly

"It's okay Gina. Please don't be sad"

"I'm not sad Rome," Gina explained, she rubbed his wrist gently. "I'm relieved that you're okay. It just makes me mad that you had to go through what you did. But I'm not mad at you Rome, I'm mad at the man who took you."

Rome nodded.

"Dad and gram said the same thing. But I can't take any more people being sad about what happened or mad. It...it really makes me feel bad. More like it was my fault."

Gina stopped and looked down at her former step-son sternly before hugging him tightly.

"Roman Castle it was not your fault, you know it wasn't your fault. If anything you should be proud of yourself, you helped your father and his detective friends bring a very bad person to justice."

"That's what Dr. Goldberg's been saying, and a part of me knows that's true, but…I still can't help it, I feel like it's my fault." He paused "and right now nothing anyone says is gonna make me feel any different."

Gina sighed, she knew Rome was right on that.

"Oh, Romey,"

He gave her a small smile.

"It'll be okay Gina, I promise, it's just gunna take some time."

"Rome, you are getting to be so mature, it's amazing. You've been listening to your sister haven't you, not your dad?"

"Nope, motivational books on tape, listening to them every night at bedtime." He replied. Gina looked at him confused and his grin got wider "kidding."

"And there's your father," Gina said hugging him close again.

They rounded the corner and headed towards the art store. The owner of the store looked up as soon as he heard the bell at the door.

"Is that my favorite ten-year-old artist?" Gavin, the owner of Canal Street Art Supply exclaimed. It wasn't the biggest shop in the city, but it was one of the best at least Rome thought so. It was the only shop that carried his favorite brand of charcoal pencils.

The manufacturer stopped making the exact charcoal pencil that Rome preferred, in the US, but Gavin had managed to talk to his contacts/friends in Brazil where the company was based and was able to get small shipments of the pencil up to New York.

Rome had been going into Gavin's store since he was six, he hated to buy his supplies anywhere else because of how accommodating Gavin and the rest of the staff were for him, it was a loyalty he felt for the small art store.

"Hi, Gavin!" Rome exclaimed. He pulled away from Gina, who reluctantly and nervously let go of his hand.

"Little man it feels like I haven't seen you in months, I know you're busy with school and everything, but you couldn't take time out of your busy schedule to come down and converse?"

Rome hesitated for a second and gave the twenty-six-year-old a quick shrug.

"Sorry," he said, not wanting to explain to Gavin the real reason he'd been MIA from the art store, at least once a week he was usually in the store but since his kidnapping he hadn't and Rome really felt guilty about that even though he knew he had no reason to be.

"Don't sweat it, kid, it's not easy being a sixth-grader now, man they must be piling the homework on you, that's why right?"

Rome nodded slowly.

"Just a little"

"Well tell them to knock it off Rome, you're an artist, an artist can't be bogged down by long division and multiplication."

Now Rome grinned.

"Gavin I'm in sixth grade, I learned that stuff years ago. We're doing algebra."

"No wonder you haven't had time to come visit," Gavin continued, he paused when he realized Rome wasn't alone, his face twisted a little as he tried to put a name with the woman… "We've met before I'm sure of it," he said thoughtfully "wait, don't tell me, I'm good with faces, crappy with names, hold on I'll get it…" he paused "Caldwell right,"

"Close, Cowell,"

"Riiiiiight," Gavin emphasized "you used to bring Rome in here all the time, you're Mr. Castle's publisher right? For Black Pawn?"

"Good memory," Gina replied

"Rome, dude did you hear that they're making a Sherlock Holmes movie? Robert Downy Jr. is the Holmes man himself."

Rome tried to grin and share Gavin's enthusiasm, but he felt a knot forming in his stomach, remembering how he had used that fact as a clue…a way to help his dad and the team find him.

Gina looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, but Rome quickly shook his head and composed himself.

"Yeah, my dad's all excited about it, we're going to the midnight release."

"Well then have I got something cool for you!" Gavin grinned "wait here, I'll grab it,"

Rome's curiosity was at an all-time high as he watched Gavin disappear into the backroom.

"Rome, sweetie are you okay?" Gina asked softly signing as she went "you seemed a little out of it when Gavin mentioned the movie."

Rome hesitated, he didn't want to explain to Gina…to anyone why something as innocent and even cool as a new movie about one of his personal fictional heroes would make his stomach hurt. Rome knew his clues had helped get him rescued faster, but he never really expected those clues to keep haunting him. If anything Rome had hoped he would forget all about them, no such luck though.

"It's nothing Gina, I promise," he finally replied as Gavin returned with a graphic novel tucked under his arm and a small wooden box.

"Here you go Mr. Castle," he said with a grin putting the book on the counter, Rome leaned up on the counter to get a better look at it, he examined it then looked at Gavin confused.

"I thought they weren't releasing a graphic novel for the movie?" he asked, Gina leaned forward too, as a publisher whose company worked closely with Marvel, she would have been one of the first in line to get a prerelease copy of a Sherlock Holmes graphic novel to give to Rome.

"They aren't, this was done by a buddy of mine, his cousin is in the movie and sent him a copy of the script and Nelson created this on his own."

"Wow, this guy is good," Rome breathed admiring each page as he turned them, Gina was also impressed with the work

"I'll be sure to pass your compliments on,"

"Is he going to publish this?" Rome asked looking between Gina and Gavin, hoping maybe Gina might be able to pull some strings and help Gavin's friend out.

"Unfortunately he can't Rome,"

It took Rome only a few seconds to understand what Gavin meant.

"It's copyrighted isn't it?"

"Warner Brothers doesn't want a graphic novel to be attached to the film, they figured there's enough quote on quote comic books about the character floating around. They did agree to a movie tie in book." Gavin explained and Rome's shoulders fell

"That's too bad, 'cause this is awesome, right Gina?" Rome asked and Gina nodded

"If there wasn't a copyright issue attached to it I would certainly be happy to publish this."

"Well, Nelson made a few copies and is giving them out to close friends, people he knows he can trust to not try and sell it anywhere. But I'd like for you to have my copy Rome."

"Aw, thanks Gavin, but I can't take that, won't your friend be mad?"

"No, because I told him that I have a great little friend who's a fellow graphic artist who would probably be ecstatic about this. Doesn't your dad call you Doc, like for Dr. Watson? Sherlock's best bud?"

Rome hesitated a little, in his mind he kept hearing M's voice, saying 'Doc' he'd been trying so hard to forget that. It was his dad's favorite nickname for him and he always felt proud that his dad thought of him as Dr. Watson, he hated to think that M had left that big of an impact on his subconscious that hearing his nickname made him feel sick.

"Ye-yes," Rome stuttered a little

"I remember him calling you that last time you guys were in." Gavin said with a grin "but seriously I want you to have the book, I think you'll really enjoy it."

"Thank you, Gavin," Rome breathed, taking the book carefully.

"You're welcome kid, hey your pencils came in a week ago," Gavin put the wooden box on the counter and opened it up. Rome grinned at the sight of his favorite style of pencil. "Also we just got a new supply of pens in; I think you'll really like them. I know you're picky when it comes to your supplies, but I've talked to a lot of other artists and they said these are great for inking." Gavin disappeared into the back and was back in a few seconds with a small plastic case and a heavy sheet of paper. "Here kid, give this a try," he handed a regular pencil to Rome and the plastic case with the markers.

Rome climbed up on the stool and took the pencil to the paper. He hadn't really sketched much since his wrists had healed, it hadn't felt right. He was partially afraid that maybe all the sketching he'd been forced to do with M had literally stolen all the creativity he had in him.

Gavin saw him hesitating and raised an eyebrow. Gina patted Rome's shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. Rome nodded in response and quickly sketched a cartoon character, he sketched Scooby-Doo.

"Nice work Rome," Gina said hugging his shoulders

"Great job kid, now try the markers out, I promise you'll like them," Gavin added, he held out a brown marker and carefully Rome colored in Scooby's brown fur and he grinned.

"Wow, you weren't kidding Gavin, these are great!"

"See, trust your old buddy Gavin, every now and then I know what I'm talking about."

"I promise I'll stop doubting you," Rome grinned "'sides Gavin you're not old,"

"Course I am, I'm nearly twenty-seven, to you I'm ancient."

Rome laughed a little and shook his head quickly

"You're not ancient Gavin!" Rome exclaimed

"I appreciate that Rome, even if you're just being nice." He rang up the charcoal pencils and looked at the markers "so yay or nay to the markers,"

Rome looked at Gina who was reaching into her purse to pull out her credit card. She looked down at him and smiled

"It's up to you Romey,"

"Can I have them please?" Gina nodded "then yes, I mean yay!" Rome said to Gavin who added the markers to the purchases.

"Don't forget your book," Gavin added slipping the book into the bag

"Thanks again Gavin," Rome said sliding off the stool

"Anytime kid, don't be such a stranger, come visit again soon will ya?"

Rome nodded

"I will,"

Rome followed Gina out of the art store and once on the sidewalk she handed him the bag with his art supplies.

"Looks like you made out like a bandit Romey," Gina said nudging him gently

"Thank you, Gina,"

"All I ask is that you draw me a new sketch, I need to update the one in my office, it's over a year old."

"Deal," Rome replied.

"How does Aurora SoHo sound for dinner?" Gina asked and Rome's stomach growled as he grinned excitedly, it was one of his favorite restaurants and he nodded quickly

"Yes, yes, yes!" He exclaimed and Gina chuckled "please, please!"

"All right, all right," Gina hugged his shoulders "how about we call your sister and grandmother and see if they'd like to meet us."

Rome nodded, Gina pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number to the loft, she tucked the phone against her shoulder and took Rome's hand as they headed down the street towards the restaurant, which was about a six-minute walk from the loft.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hate putting these things in the beginning but had to add this. Like with Like Father Like Son' this fic will contain some parts taken directly from the episodes, it's unavoidable, especially now. In season two and the seasons that followed, Alexis and Martha had more screen time, more to do with the show itself, so, therefore, Rome will have more parts in actual episodes, so you have been warned. I do try and add bits to the parts to make it less like the actual episode and more original, but again it is unavoidable so please be gentle

Meanwhile at the 12th Beckett was actually contemplating where exactly she had lost control, lost her vote in the whole 'keep Castle off of the island'. She sat at her desk, giving dry answers to the ridiculous questions the reporter was asking her, as Castle turned the 12th into a photoshoot mixed with a strip club. She watched in disgust as the photographer instructed one of the girls to lean closer to Castle…point taken it wasn't a photoshoot anymore, it was now an all-out strip club.

She had known from the beginning that this interview/photoshoot was a possibility, the minute Castle had made it clear that she was the inspiration for his new novel, Beckett would have to answer questions as Nikki Heat. But that whole thing with her mother, the fact that Castle went behind her back and did exactly what she asked him not to do, she had asked, threatened, even begged for him to leave her mother's case alone and he'd betrayed her.

She'd made it clear they were done, she wanted nothing more to do with the mystery writer. They were finished. She knew it, Castle had known it, the Captain, her team, everyone was made aware that the partners were done.

Then Alexis had shown up at her doorstep, soaking wet, eyes red and puffy from the endless tears, begging Beckett for help, Rome had been kidnapped, the Castle family needed her help. The kidnapper was calling for Nikki Heat, demanding that Nikki Heat and Derrick Storm solve the kidnapping.

Even then, she was hesitant to get involved with the mystery writer again, the anger was still there, but she knew she had to put that aside, Rome was innocent, he was not responsible for his father's betrayal and Beckett knew she could never forgive herself if she had turned Alexis away or if anything had happened to Rome.

So Beckett agreed to help. Slowly as the days went on, the partnership returned. Beckett was able to keep Castle from chasing down wild theories, she was there to comfort him and even control him. Even so, everyone seemed to know that when Rome was brought home safely, it wouldn't change anything between the partners, whatever relationship Beckett and Castle had managed to build in the few months he shadowed her and the team was crushed when he looked into her mother's case.

But it was during their hunt for Rome, that the ease of how well the partners worked together crept back into the scene, at least until Espo and Ryan arrested 'Mr. Smith' who refused to give his real name and at first refused to cooperate. He was a dead ringer to a sketch that hot-dog vendor had described, they all knew he was involved in the case somehow, but no one was quite sure how…Beckett pushed and threatened, using all of her instincts as a cop to get Mr. Smith to break, he knew something about Rome's kidnapping, Beckett knew he was the step they needed to find Rome.

Of course, Beckett had not been prepared for the answer she was given, nor the weight of that knowledge as it stayed on her mind through the rest of the case. Mr. Smith's identity…Castle's father, Rome and Alexis' grandfather, he had gotten involved in the case to save his grandson. He gave the detective all the information he could to help find Rome, on the condition that Beckett was not to tell a soul, especially not Castle himself.

She'd kept that promise for as long as possible, from the final clue that brought them to Rome, to his rescue and the takedown of his kidnapper, to Rome's near-death experience and his slow, but steady recovery.

But the guilt was weighing heavy on Beckett's mind, was it guilt though? Or was it something else, she'd kept the promise for Rome's sake, but now that he was safe, Beckett wasn't entirely sure why she had told Castle about Mr. Smith.

Did she really do it out of the guilt of lying to her partner or had so done it to get back at Castle? Beckett wasn't one for revenge, it never seemed her style, but she had willingly told Castle everything, including the fact that Smith had asked her not to tell.

She wasn't entirely sure what she expected, and even though she was a little taken aback, Beckett really wasn't surprised that Castle had blown up, that he felt betrayed, hurt, just like she had, standing in the hospital hallway when he had done the same to her.

Not willing to sit and take even an apology, which Castle seemed more than willing to give, despite the whole fight, Beckett had simply left the loft and hadn't looked back.

No that wasn't entirely true, she had looked back, she'd called and even swung in to check in with Rome's therapist, just to see how the youngest Castle was doing, see if he was making any progress after his kidnapping.

But why was she so concerned, both of Castle's kids were the complete opposite of their dad, they were thoughtful, sweet…Beckett thought that over, okay maybe they had gotten that from their father, but being close to the kids meant being close to the obnoxious, big Castle

"Sexy, sexy. Ladies, I love it. I love it. Sexy. Sexy's not a crime." The photographer's obnoxious voice pulled Beckett out of her thoughts, just in time to hear Amy Saunders, the reporter launch into her next question.

"What's so special about world-famous mystery novelist Richard Castle? He's rich, he's handsome, and he's basing his next bestseller on you. Tell me, Detective Beckett, what's it like being the inspiration for thrill-master Richard Castle's new character, Nikki Heat?"

Beckett forced out a smile and tried not to grit her teeth.

"On behalf of the NYPD, it has been a pleasure to offer Mr. Castle insight into the profession."

"Given all his best-sellers, it's obvious Mr. Castle has tremendous insight into the criminal mind. I'm told on many occasions, his participation was essential to solving your toughest cases."

"Really? You were told that? By who?" Beckett asked even though she knew she really didn't have to ask.

"By Castle," Amy replied and Beckett forced out another smile, unable to match the giddiness that was the reporter

"Sexy. Try unbuttoning his shirt. Just, just the first one right there." The photographer was saying in the background, as two barely dressed women, mimicking cops, clung to Castle.

Beckett took a deep breath when she spotted Montgomery heading towards his office, enough was enough, she was putting a stop to this whole thing.

"Could you excuse me for a moment?" she said to Amy whose painted on smile didn't waver as she nodded cheerfully, creeping Beckett out just a little. "Sir," Beckett called rushing over to her boss "could I talk to you in private for a moment, please?"

Montgomery seemed to have guessed what was on his lead detective's mind and was going to try and avoid her as long as possible.

"Beckett, I have a couple..." he started to say, but before he could say anything else, Beckett basically herded him into his own office.

"Now." She insisted, shutting the door behind them

"We had a deal, Beckett." Montgomery reminded her gently

"The deal is off."

"What's the problem?"

"Not only does he have the bachelor party cop twins out there using him as a stripper pole while I make nicey-nice with the press, but do you know what he said?" Beckett asked expectantly while Montgomery looked slightly confused

"No?" Montgomery dared to ask

"He said that he has been instrumental in helping us solve crimes."

"Well, hasn't he?"

Beckett stared at her captain in utter disbelief

"That's not the point." She grumbled

"Do you know how hard it is for NYPD to get good press? I mean, in a magazine that people actually read?" Montgomery said gently, not the first time his voice was more like a teacher talking to a student "This article is very important to the mayor, therefore we are going to cooperate. Do I make myself clear?"

Beckett sighed,

"Okay. Fine." She glanced back at Amy and sighed again, she wasn't really giddy about returning to the interview, at least not right away, instead, she headed to the break room, hoping to grab a soda, or perhaps something stronger. Ryan and Espo were both insides, both blatantly flirting with one of the two 'models'

"It was nice to meet you." Ryan said as she walked out, he turned to Espo and nodded "We should have photoshoots here more often."

Espo looked up at Beckett and grinned

"Hey, Beckett, how come you don't wear a uniform like that?" he asked, trying to sound serious.

Beckett glared at him

"Because I don't want to get paid in singles." She answered, but before she could say anything else, Castle poked his head inside, looking kind of sheepish.

"Hey." He said carefully, Ryan and Espo looked at one another and Ryan nodded towards the door.

"Oh, hey, uh, don't we have that thing?" he said to Espo who just looked confused.

"No,"

"Ryan looked at Espo harder

"Yeah. You know, the thing with the guy."

Now Beckett got involved in the looks, and Espo finally got the hint that Ryan had already gotten.

"Oh yeah. The thing." Espo said standing up quickly

"Yeah, Excuse us," Ryan added, as the pair made a quick exit, stage left.  
"I just wanted you to know I had nothing to do with this. I mean, it was the magazine.

Well, the mayor thought it would be good press." Castle explained, the sheepish still on his face, Beckett tried not to look at it, afraid that she'd fall for it.

"You don't have to explain yourself," Beckett replied

"Really?" Castle asked, knowing she wasn't being entirely truthful.

"Really. See? I don't care anymore. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an interview to get back to."

Castle sighed

"What did I do that was so wrong?" he asked, following Beckett out to the bullpen

"The one thing I asked you not to do," Beckett replied shaking her head at him as if it should've been obvious.

"Okay, so you asked me not to look into your mother's murder. But I apologized for that many, many times and besides, look at what I found."

"It doesn't matter what you found. I put that all behind me a long." She paused "look you know all this, but it just isn't sinking in." Castle looked defeated for a second, but his expression changed for a moment "what?" Beckett asked

"Look, I just want to say thank you,"

"For what Castle?"

"Not for me, for Rome, his doctor said you've been checking in on his progress, I just wanted to thank you for that, it means a lot, to me and to Rome. The whole family owes you a lot Detective and there is nothing we can do to ever repay you for that, you helped me get my son back."

Beckett wasn't sure how to answer that, she wasn't ready to make peace with Castle, but hearing his gratitude did make her question whether her grudge was worth holding onto. When she neared her desk though and saw the wide expectant smile of the reporter, she knew the grudge was well worth it.

"We can get back to the interview now." She said between clenched teeth, hoping Castle would once again get the hint.

"Nope, you're gonna have to reschedule. We just caught a body." Espo called across the bullpen and it was all Beckett could do to not break out in a relieved smile, finally, the excuse she was looking for to get away from not only the reporter but Castle too.

"So sorry to step out on you, Amy," Beckett said, trying to sound as disappointed as possible, but the reporter didn't see it that way, instead she jumped into action so to speak, pen and digital recorder ready to go.

"Oh! Are you kidding? It's perfect. A chance to see Castle in action. Our readers'll love it."

Beckett's mouth dropped. As she made a move to argue, Montgomery stepped in, pulling rank.

"Well, we wouldn't want to disappoint your readers, now, would we, Detective?" he asked, Beckett looked at him in disbelief and he gave her a look right back, one that clearly said 'play nice.'

xxx

Rome was surprised that his dad wasn't home yet from the photoshoot by the time the family returned home from the restaurant, considering how late it was, a couple of bottles of wine between Martha and Gina kept them there for a while as the two caught up. Catching up however gave Rome and Alexis free range with the restaurant, and Rome managed to wrangle three desserts off the menu before the grownups realized it.

But it was strange that Castle hadn't called or texted, he was usually really meticulous about checking in with the kids, so while Rome was ready to panic about his dad's whereabouts, Alexis reminded him that it was a safe bet that things were going okay at the precinct, at least Rome hoped his sister was right.

Gina stayed for a few minutes, visiting with the family before she bid them goodnight and headed out.

Even though Rome had stuffed his face at the restaurant, (including dessert) he was still hungry and began migrating around the kitchen looking for something to snack on.

"So what did you get at the art store?" Alexis asked eagerly, helping him reach the bag of goldfish from the cabinet.

She normally would have asked him at the restaurant, pestered him until he cracked a smile and told her all about the art supplies and styles that weren't all that interesting to her, but knew how important they were to her brother so she never let on that it wasn't as interesting to her as it was to him.

She knew how her brother got when it came to new art supplies, at least how he had always been before his kidnapping. Rome had been slow to return to his usual enthusiasm with anything dealing with art and it scared his sister a little, wondering if something that had always been so important to her little brother, was gone forever.

Alexis was taking an art history class for her sophomore year and Rome had been thrilled at looking through the textbook when school first started.

A week or so following his kidnapping though, whenever she showed him a new piece the class was studying, he'd just kind of look at it, give a half-smile, and a shrug, then go back to whatever he was doing, usually reading a book or playing a video game.

Rome hadn't really picked up a pencil to sketch since he'd come home and it worried everyone. In the beginning, they knew it was just going to take time after all his wrists were still wounded from his ordeal and that made signing tough let alone holding a pencil at the angle he needed to sketch.

Instead of the lately attitude of 'blah,' Rome actually grinned at his sister, a look she'd missed the last few weeks.

"Gavin had these new markers, they're awesome, I can't wait to test them out with my India Ink, it'll really look cool on my graphic novel pages. Plus my charcoal pencils came in so I can finish sketching the Hamptons house." Rome explained, "and speaking of graphic novels, check this out!" Rome reached into the bag and carefully pulled out the Sherlock Holmes graphic novel, he handed it to his sister who admired it.

"Wow, this is really well done, did Gavin do this?"

Rome shook his head

"A friend of his, but he can't publish it, copyrights, Warner Brothers doesn't want a graphic novel to be released for the new movie, but Gavin's friend did this and gave a few copies out to friends."

Alexis nodded as she flipped through the book, even though she wasn't a fan of comic books or even graphic novels like her brother, she did appreciate art when she saw it, especially when it clearly made Rome happy, especially now, when the look on his face was something they really didn't get to see often enough.

"These are beautiful, wow, look at Robert Downy Jr, he's so cute, even in comic form." she giggled and Rome rolled his eyes

"I can't wait for the movie, you're still going with me and dad to the midnight release aren't you Lex? Please, please?" he asked giving her the saddest puppy dog eyes he could pull off without actual tears. Alexis rolled her eyes and nodded

"Of course, it will be fun, just because I'm not a fan of graphic novels Rome doesn't mean I don't like the story of Sherlock Holmes, who was it that read you the Hounds of Baskerville when you were little? Huh?" Alexis added, poking her brother in the ribs gently.

"You did," Rome admitted grinning, "dad read me James Bond novels, but you thought I'd like Sherlock Homes and I did." Rome paused hugging his sister, "anyways, Dad wants to dress up in authentic Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes costumes, you down for that?" Rome asked mischievously "you could be Mrs. Hudson the housekeeper," and Alexis pushed him gently

"Housekeeper?! No way you two are on your own on that one."

"Chicken," Rome replied, "come on we can get you a feather duster and one of those little bonnet hat things,"

"Shut up Rome," Alexis shot back

"Okay fine, you don't want to be the housekeeper, how about Toby," Rome suggested innocently.

Alexis raised her eyebrow, wracking her brain trying to remember the characters in Sherlock Holmes, in all the books, all the cartoons, movies, everything she could ever remember their dad reading or showing her and Rome about Sherlock Homes, she couldn't remember a character named Toby.

"Rome who is Toby?"

"Sherlock Holmes' rent-a-dog." He answered his grin getting wider

"What!?"

"He's been played by many breeds, usually a Blood Hound, but I think in this movie Toby's going to be an English Bull Dog." Rome paused "love you, Lex!"

"You are such a brat!" Alexis exclaimed reaching over, she hugged and kissed him, exactly what she knew he'd squirm away from. He didn't disappoint and grumbled and groaned trying to get away from his sister, but he was grinning at the same time and Alexis couldn't help but match it. She hadn't seen the mischievous side to her brother in a while, not since before his kidnapping anyways, but she loved that look and was happy to see it again.

Giving him one last shove, Alexis headed off to do homework and Rome migrated to the kitchen counter, giving his new markers a try.

As the hours clicked by, Rome was starting to wonder what was taking his dad so long to come home from the photoshoot. He didn't have a reason to be hanging out at the precinct anymore, not since Detective Beckett got mad at him…again.

It didn't seem fair to Rome, him and Alexis had heard the whole argument, well she had heard, then signed it to him. It didn't change anything though, Rome was on his dad's side in this argument, so was Alexis.

Sure Detective Beckett had every right to get mad at Castle when he went behind her back and looked into her mom's murder, but Rome didn't think that was the newest reason the partners were at the kindergarten stage of 'I'm not speaking to you'.

It seemed really childish to Rome and Alexis and of the two, Rome knew childish, so it was pretty bad when even he thought they were acting like babies, besides it was a one-sided version of it, because Castle had been trying to contact Beckett to apologize with no luck, even though Rome didn't think his dad had anything to apologize for, his dad was trying to do the right thing.

Detective Beckett had gotten mad at Castle because he'd been upset over her not telling him right away that she had met Richard Castle's MIA father, and that he'd had a hand in Rome being rescued from M. With that being the case, if anyone had the right to be mad it was his dad, having something like that kept from him wasn't fair.

Even with his dad and the detective at odds with one another, Rome couldn't forget that Detective Beckett had been part of the team to rescue him and he owed her big time for that. He wanted to go to the precinct and give her flowers or something as a thank you, but he was worried that she would think that his dad had sent him as some kind of peace offering and get mad at Castle all over again.

So as time crept by, Rome's wonder began to turn to worry, especially when his 'not usually enforced with dad' bedtime came and went. 9:30, 9:45, 9:55, still no dad. Alexis texted him, called him, Rome texted, but still no response. This wasn't like their dad, he always texted back, always called back, no matter what. Rome watched as his sister's pacing and texting became more frantic even though she was clearly trying to keep away from him so as not to worry him.

Finally an hour into panic mode, at 10:30, the house phone rang. Rome knew it had done so because his dad had put on the flashers, which would flash certain lights in the loft twice when the phone was ringing. It was one of the many gadgets his dad had been playing with for a long time in regards to Rome's hearing loss and Rome was equally as enthused as his father.

He just knew that the flashing lights were all well in good, but if his hearing was doing so bad that he needed the flashing lights to let him know that the phone was ringing, then he wasn't going to be able to answer said phone. The fun thing was the flashers as they called them were also attached to the smoke alarms, the video phone, and to the buzzer for the loft, those made a lot more sense to Rome.

He had taken his hearing aids out at the restaurant because they were bothering him a little bit, his hearing, which had been on a quick decline in the last year or so had stayed somewhat steady the last month or so, but Rome knew it was only a matter of time before that coasting changed again and it was downhill.

Martha got to the phone first before Alexis could. She moved closer to Rome and held him close, Rome's reaction in the past would've been to squirm away from his sister's hugs, but since his kidnapping, he didn't react the same way to being hugged, he welcomed being hugged by his dad, grandmother, sister. Being closer to them made him feel better, calmed him, reminded him that he was safe and home.

Alexis was shaking, Rome could feel it, so he wrapped his arm around her, trying to calm his sister. Gram had her back to them so Rome couldn't read her lips and his sister was too fixated on their grandmother's back and what she could hear, to sign to him.

"Lex?" Rome whispered, "Lex, what's going on, is it about dad, is he okay?"

Finally, Martha turned to face her grandkids, the look on her face was one of relief, which instantly calmed Alexis and Rome.

"Thank you, Detective Beckett, take care darling, yes, you too." She hung up the phone and sighed at seeing the identical worried expression on her grandkids. "He's fine," she explained and Rome let out simultaneous sighs of relief.

"What happened?" Rome asked, louder than he meant too, it was always tough for him to judge even his own volume when his hearing was on the fritz. His grandmother and sister didn't seem to notice or even care.

"There was a slight incident and your father was involved." Gram explained, Rome and Alexis exchanged a look, incident and Castle usually went hand in hand with one another.

"What did he do?" Alexis asked

"Want me to get his ATM card to get bail money?" Rome asked, "I know the pin."

Gram chuckled and shook her head

"No kiddo, that would won't be necessary, Detective Beckett said he should be home shortly."

"So what happened?" Alexis repeated

"There was a murder and the reporter who is doing the story on your father wanted to see your father and Detective Beckett in action. For some reason, only your father probably knows, he was riding in the medical examiner van with Dr. Parish, when there was an accident and, well the body was stolen at gunpoint."

Rome's eyes went wide as he looked over at his sister for a second.

"Holy crap," he exclaimed

"He's fine Roman," Martha replied, "and I'm sure he'll have a wonderful tale of horror and exaggeration to tell us as soon as he gets home."

Rome nodded as his grandmother headed off to her room and Lex wandered towards the kitchen. He took his new graphic novel to the couch and flopped down on it to read the new book. He looked up when he saw a shadow walk past him and realized it was Lex, she walked by him once, then a second time. She was on the phone and giggling. Rome rolled his eyes, watching his sister twirl her hair as she spoke.

"I'd love to," she was saying as he peered over the top of his book to watch her "I have to ask my dad first, but sure sounds like fun." She looked over at him and winked, before turning back to the stairs, which meant Rome lost the conversation. Not that he really cared, he knew who his sister was talking to, Owen, her boyfriend and he had a pretty good idea what they were talking about.

The movie Fame was set to be released on Friday, Alexis wanted to see it, but Rome also knew that their dad wanted to see it too. They were all supposed to see it together, Rome who first of all had no desire to see the movie in the first place, had made plans to sleep over Gage's. They were going to see Nine, which they weren't entirely sure if it was a good movie or not, but both knew it had to be better than whatever Fame was.

But Rome also knew, that Castle was going to be pretty hurt that Alexis was choosing to see Fame with Owen, overseeing it with their dad.

Finally, around 11, the door to the loft opened and Castle waltzed in as if nothing had happened. Alexis and Rome ran to the door to greet their father.

"Dad. Thank God you're home. Are you okay?" Alexis exclaimed hugging him tight as Rome bypassed his sister and jumped into his dad's arms,

"Yeah, I'm fine. Whoa, hi Doc," Castle breathed, lifting Rome up and hugging him and Alexis just as tight before gently putting Rome down. Why? And what's with the greeting Doc, not that I don't appreciate it. I'm fine,"

Rome and Alexis exchanged a dumbfounded look.

"Fine? Masked gunmen, body snatchers? Rome and I texted you, like, a thousand times."

"Yeah, dad!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. My phone must have been off. How- how did you know?" Castle asked, clearly confused as he pulled out his phone

"Beckett called," Alexis explained

"Really?" Castle asked,

"She just wanted to let us know you were all right." Gram explained, shaking her head at her son.

"Which would've been nice if you did too, seriously dad." Rome added, "we were worried about you."

"Mmm-hmm. Sorry guys" Castle said, hugging Alexis and Rome tight "got a little caught up in the case and helping Beckett out." He moved towards his office, he reached his desk and dropped his wallet onto it.

"So, has she forgiven you?" Gram asked

"Uh, not exactly, Mother. But I'm working on it. She has agreed to let me help on the case."

"Well, that's a start, I suppose."

"It is more than a start. It is an opportunity. She may have built a wall between us, but I am going to build a door in that wall, or put up a ladder, or dig a hole."

"You could use a catapult. Or a wooden horse." Rome suggested and Castle chuckled, nodding

"Could use that to Romey,"

"You have a strategy?" Martha asked, "Aside from using Rome's Spam-a-lot methods."

"Be my usual charming self," Castle replied

"Uh-huh. What about plan B?" Martha asked and Castle shrugged as he turned on the cell phone.

"So was it awful? Were you scared?" Alexis asked hugging Rome's shoulders

"Me, scared? No way. Come on. Now excuse me while I change my shorts." Castle replied, Rome laughed at that but Alexis made a face.

"Dad." She chastised a bit

"No," Castle reassured "I was scared. But all they were after was the body." He explained to everyone.

"Why?" Rome asked sitting next to his sister

"Why indeed my minions?" Castle replied as his phone woke up and he went through his text messages. "Dad, where are you?" "Dad, are you all right?" "Dad, call us right away." "Dad, can I go see Fame with Owen on Friday?" Your concern is touching."

"All Alexis," Rome spoke up quickly "my messages are completely focused."

Alexis gave him a gentle shove

"Okay, that one was after we knew you were all right."

"Yeah, but I thought we were going to go see that the three of us?"

"Dad I really don't want to go see that," Rome spoke up but stopped when his dad gave him a look "but I can easily rearrange my plans," he added

"We were, and we still can. But he invited me to go see it with him next Friday." Alexis explained and Castle sighed

"You'd rather go with your boyfriend than your dad? What is wrong with you?"

"I think the bigger question is why are we getting all up in arms over this movie in the first place," Rome spoke up, grinning

If you really want me to go with you, I will." Alexis said, ignoring her brother's comments.

"No, no." Castle said with a sigh "You tell Owen he has won this round, but I got dibs on A Christmas Carol."

Now Rome grinned wide, all excited

"Sweet Christmas Carol! He exclaimed jumping around

Alexis reached over and hugged Castle tight

"Thanks, Dad. And I'm glad you weren't killed by body snatchers."

"Me, too." Castle said with a nod

"Me three," Rome added as Alexis skipped out, Rome looked at his grandmother and father expectantly.

"They remade Fame and A Christmas Carol." Martha started "Has Hollywood totally run out of ideas?"

Castle and Rome exchanged a look and grinned

"Well, they just optioned, uh, Asteroids, the videogame, so my guess is yes. But Ryan Reynolds is playing the wee triangle, and he's good."

Martha sighed and threw her hands up in the air as Castle and Rome burst out laughing.

"I think Space Invaders is next gram!" Rome called

"Very funny Roman, how do you even know what Space Invaders is?"

"It's in my history books,"

Martha's mouth dropped open

"History books?" she said walking out of the room, Rome looked over at his dad, sharing identical grins.

"I think you got her Doc,"

"It's true though, my history books have this thing in the back of the book, things of that decade and for the 70s it talks about Atari and Space Invaders." Rome paused "I'm going to bed, night dad, glad you're okay."

Castle reached out and grabbed Rome around the waist as he was heading out of the office

"Hold up a minute kiddo," he said lifting Rome up and pulling him back.

"What's up dad?"

'You doing okay Doc?' Castle asked, signing, Rome nodded 'honest?'

'Better dad, I promise, doing better,'

Castle smiled and hugged Rome tight

"I'm proud of you kiddo," he said, "you've come really far and I couldn't be more proud of you."

"Thanks, Dad," Rome replied hugging Castle back

"Okay Doc, go on off to bed before you sister starts hunting you down and wondering why you're not in bed." Castle paused "hey, doc?"

"Yeah, dad?"

"Love you,"

Rome nodded

"Love you too," he said running off to bed.

Xxx


	3. Chapter 3

Rome had been surviving day by day at school. Some parts of the day were definitely easier than others, social studies, math, ELA, he could lose himself in and was fine, but gym was still pretty problematic.

Going on two weeks, nearly three since he'd come home, Rome was slowly getting his strength back. His arms were still very sore and weak so he was extremely grateful that his class was playing street hockey that particular day.

It was the day after Castle's interview with the magazine for the new book, the day after Detective Beckett had reluctantly agreed to let Castle work with her on one more case.

Rome was feeling pretty lucky when the teams were drawn up and among his classmates he was able to pick the correct number that the gym teacher Mrs. Neally had decided on, allowing him to take goalie.

Rome was small and didn't play on any team sports, at least not for extracurricular activities, Karate was his main thing and he loved it, but he did consider himself to be pretty athletic and did play football, baseball, soccer, things like that with his friends, just for fun.

When Alexis had played soccer, she'd have him stand in the goal and shoot off him to practice and Rome rarely if ever let one get by him.

Hockey wasn't any different, especially since he got to wear all the pads, but as he blocked shot after shot, dropping down to his padded knees to stop the ball, it was all starting to take its toll on his already sore body and fifteen minutes into PE, he was hurting. Rome was good at hiding it though, no one in class saw just how much pain he was really in, no one except Todd, who as always, was keeping an eye on his best friend.

As Mrs. Neally called halftime, Todd who was the other team's goalie came jogging over to check on Rome. Normally seeing Todd trying to run in the goalie getup would've been funny, but Rome was too busy trying to catch his breath.

"Duuude," Todd exclaimed "did you see that game-winning save I made before Neally blew the whistle? You guys can't score on this, nuh-uh, can't touch this," he stopped when his goofy behavior barely got a smile from Rome. "Rome dude, are you okay?"

Rome nodded slowly

"Ye-Yeah, I'm okay, I think I may have stepped on a rock or something," he lied, feeling horrible about it.

Todd's face fell for a second before he looked up quickly, clearly annoyed, something Rome was not used to with Todd.

"I really wish you'd just tell me what's going on, y'know like friends are supposed to do!"

"There's nothing to tell," Rome replied wincing

"Says you, you've been mad different Rome ever since Labor Day weekend. I get that you were sick and everything, but what the heck, you've changed, we've all seen it."

"Nothing has changed," Rome argued, "you're overreacting!"

"No, I'm not." Todd shot back "Kev's seen it too, Joey, Gage, we've all seen it."

As if hearing their names, Gage and Joey who were on Rome's team looked up and started jogging over to them, Rome groaned.

"Just leave it alone Todd, please, I'm asking, no I'm begging you, drop it, there is nothing wrong seriously."

"I never thought I'd ever see the day when we'd keep secrets from each other," Todd snapped, just as Gage and Joey reached them, they'd heard pretty much the entire argument.

"Todd's right Rome," Joey said gently "something is up. I mean don't forget your panic attack last week, randomly out of the blue, I thought we were going to have to get the nurse it was so bad."

Gage who wasn't as outspoken or direct as the others hesitated for a second as if he was already regretting what he was about to do. He reached over and grabbed Rome's arm. Rome tried to pull away, but stopped struggling after a few seconds, what was the point…

"Thursday before Labor Day weekend you were fine, then a week and a half later you've got these scars on your wrists. Your sister told us you had an ear infection, since when does that leave scars on your wrists, what happened Rome?" Gage asked, "we're your friends you know you can talk to us."

Rome yanked his arm back and stuck his hands in his pockets to hide his wrists. Across the field, Mrs. Neally blew her whistle, half time was over, time to switch goals.

'Just leave it alone' he signed angrily 'you guys wouldn't understand!'

'Fine,' Todd signed back, glaring at his friend, before running back to his team, Gage and Joey also gave Rome a look before heading to their spots.

Rome felt his chest get tight and he wasn't sure if it was from anger, betrayal, or guilt, but he didn't want to hang around to find out.

He pulled off his goalie gear and carried it over to Mrs. Neally. She looked up when she saw him and had a look of concern on her face,

"Rome?" she asked, "sweetie are you okay?"

"I don't feel good Mrs. Neally, can I go to the nurse?" he asked.

Mrs. Neally nodded quickly

"Rome, you're very pale, I want someone to go with you okay." She looked around at the class "Gage, can you walk Rome to the nurse?" she asked.

Gage looked torn for a moment, he clearly wanted to help Rome out, but at the same time was on Joey and Todd's side.

"It's okay Mrs. Neally," Rome said softly "really, I can go myself I'm okay."

"No, Rome I really am going to insist on this one, is anyone willing to go with Rome to the nurse?" she asked the class, clearly surprised by Gage's decision not to help his friend. Timidly Emily raised her hand and Mrs. Neally nodded, grateful. "Thank you, Emily,"

Trying not to look at the rest of his class, Rome headed towards the school, Emily at his side.

As they walked down the hall, she stayed pretty quiet, clearly, she wanted to ask questions, but wasn't sure if she really should. Instead, she went for the generic style questions,

"Are you coming down with something?" she asked softly, trying to sign and Rome sighed.

Emily wasn't very good at signing, mainly because unlike most of Rome's classmates whom he'd known since preschool, Emily had only started at Marlowe in 4th grade, so unlike Rome's other classmates, she hadn't been exposed to sign language from an early age. She did try however and Rome who was used to interpreting signs, whether they were correct or not, was able to get the jest of the question. It also helped that his hearing aids were working somewhat.

"Yeah, I think I am," he said softly

"Are you still sick from a few weeks ago?" she asked and Rome winced, even Emily had noticed, that must have meant the entire class was suspicious. Rome didn't know why he was even bothering to try and hide the whole thing, the stress was doing a number on him and he knew it.

"I guess, it was…was pretty bad," he admitted and sighed, feeling like that was the closest he had come to be truthful about his kidnapping. Emily nodded as they neared the nurse's office,

"I hope you feel better Rome," she said carefully "see you at lunch?"

"Hopefully," Rome replied, heading inside.

The nurse, Mrs. Franklin had no one else in her office when Rome walked in, she like the other members of the faculty had been told what Rome had gone through, so she was on her feet in seconds when she saw Rome.

"Rome, are you okay honey?" she asked guiding him carefully over to a chair "honey did you overexert yourself at gym?"

Rome shook his head

"No, it's not that I promise, can I just stay in here for the rest of gym please?" he asked softly and Mrs. Franklin nodded

"Do you want some water Rome?" he nodded "okay hold tight just a second," Mrs. Franklin disappeared around the corner of her office and returned with a pint-size bottle of Poland springs, she undid the cap and handed it to Rome who took it quickly, nodding his thanks as he chugged the water. "Easy sweetie, don't drink so fast,"

"Sorry," Rome said between gulps

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" he shook his head "clearly something is bothering you Rome, do you want me to call your dad or your grandmother? Have them come pick you up?"

Now Rome shook his head even quicker

"N-No, Mrs. Franklin, I just…okay I was getting tired at gym, but didn't want to admit it." Mrs. Franklin gave him a look like she didn't believe him "honest,"

"If it was anything else you'd tell me, right sweetie? We're all here for you, here to help you if you need it."

Rome nodded

"Thank you, Mrs. Franklin, I know, I just keep wanting to get back into everything I did before, it's tough 'cause my mind says I can, but my body's fighting it,"

"It'll be tough for a while honey, but I suspect that isn't the whole problem." Mrs. Franklin sat down on her rolling chair and scooted over to Rome. "I think part of the problem is you're trying to make sure your classmates have no idea, isn't that right?"

"How'd you know?" Rome asked in shock

"I suspected it, but you just confirmed it." Rome groaned realizing she was right "it will get better Rome, I promise it will."

Rome nodded, but he really didn't believe her, everyone kept telling him it would get better, that things would start feeling better, but it didn't feel like it would ever happen, not when he was still lying to his best friends, and those same best friends were now mad at him for the lie.

Talking to Dr. Goldberg was helping, but Rome wished it would help faster, he hated what he felt like now, he wanted to be his old self again and was frustrated by how much time it was taking…and he was starting to get frustrated with his friends.

How could they be mad at him, blame him, when they really had no idea what he'd gone through. The second that thought crossed his mind, the logical side of him stepped in and reminded him that they had no idea what he'd gone through because he hadn't told them…it was one big vicious cycle.

By the time lunch rolled around, Gage, Todd, and Joey had taken the 'not talking to Rome' a step further, they wouldn't even sit with him at their usual table, instead he was stuck with Emily, Miranda, and a few of his other classmates who he got along with, but weren't his best friends, it wasn't the same.

Rome didn't even eat the chicken nuggets, he just kind of pushed them around a bit, his stomach felt funny.

Right before study hall/homeroom, it got even worse. Joey, whose locker was two down from Rome's wouldn't even make eye contact with him, even when Rome picked up Joey's nerf football that bounced from his locker and landed at Rome's feet. He held it out to his friend who took it without a word, slammed his locker shut, and went into the classroom.

Rome knew this anger from his friends had been building for a week now and he hadn't helped the situation by brushing them off so much. So when homeroom got underway and the kids sat or stood around waiting for the afternoon announcements, Rome couldn't take it anymore.

He went over to Todd, Gage, and Joey who were sitting by themselves near the back of the room. He timidly reached over and tapped Joey who was the closest on his shoulder, hard.

Joey looked up quickly and glared at him, but Rome didn't give his friends a chance to speak, instead, he signed to them as quickly as he could, Gage and Todd were able to keep up for the most part, but Todd had to translate for Joey.

'You guys want to be mad at me, that's fine, but I didn't want to tell you guys because I didn't want you to go through the same thing I'm going through, I was trying to protect you guys, but instead of accepting that, you guys decide that you want to act like kindergarten babies and do the whole 'I'm not talking to you' crap.' He stopped and let Todd finish translating for Joey, all three of them pretty stunned so far. "And you're not going to get over that unless I tell you huh? You're really going to act this stupid?'

"If the shoe fits!" Todd shot back, and Gage and Joey rolled their eyes and Rome tried not to, Todd really sucked at being mad or even insulting anyone, it just wasn't his nature. He really had no idea that he had just insulted himself.

"Todd," Gage started to say, but then clearly thought better of it "never mind,"

Joey, on the other hand, looked right at Rome, making sure he could read his lips, even as he signed as best he could

"What do you want Rome?" he said

Rome puffed out the breath he had been holding as he tried to stay calm, it wasn't working, he was getting really upset and was starting to shake from how nerve-wracking this was for him.

'Yeah, well it apparently doesn't matter what I want, doesn't matter if I've trying to work through something that you guys wouldn't understand, it's all about you guys. For one time, one time in all our years as friends I keep something from you guys because I still don't get it, 'cause I'm still trying to figure it out, the one time that happens you guys get mad 'cause I don't tell you right away.' Rome paused as the announcements came on.

They lasted about two minutes and when they were finished the secretary began dismissing grades, starting with the kindergarten through second, still Rome didn't say anything, as his friends waited expectantly, then third through fifth were dismissed.

Then sixth grade through eighth was dismissed, this was it, now or never.

"What is it Rome?" Gage asked

"It has taken me nearly three weeks and I still don't understand it, I still can't 'plain it very well, but maybe you guys being older than me, more mature, all of that, maybe you guys would handle being kidnapped for a week, kept in a dog crate tied up all because some guy wanted to punish your dad for something that happened before you were even born. Maybe you'd be stronger than me, maybe you'd be able to tell everyone easily that that's what you went through, that's why you weren't able to sleepover, that's why you didn't call or skype your friends for a week. If me not being ready to tell you guys this until you don't give me any choice, if that makes me a bad friend then fine, I'm a bad friend." Rome finished, he slung his backpack on, pulled down his newsboy cap and ran out of the room, leaving Gage, Todd, and Joey, standing there in shock.

Rome waited for Alexis anxiously, hoping his sister would beat his friends outside. He wasn't ready to face them, not now, probably not ever…they probably didn't even believe him anyway, why should they?

Rome felt his chest tighten and felt a lump form in his throat, he didn't want to cry, especially not now, especially not if Alexis would see him, he didn't want to worry his sister anymore.

She came out of the building, talking to her friends Paige and Lauren who both waved at Rome and he did his best to put on a brave face as he waved back, at least until he saw Gage, Todd, and Joey rushing towards them, all three looked stunned and concerned and even suspicious and Rome really wasn't ready to face them again. He tugged on Alexis' hand, silently begging her to go, it took a few tugs, but she finally caved and the pair headed down the street towards home.

When they rounded the corner a block from the school, Alexis looked at him sternly and Rome couldn't help but wince.

"What was that all about?" she asked, "you couldn't get away from school fast enough, is everything okay?"

He wanted to tell her, unlike his friends, his sister understood what was going on, could be there to comfort him instead of getting mad at him. Rome kept seeing the looks on his friends' faces, but the look that stood out the most was the suspicion, did they not believe him? Did they really think that he would make something like THAT up? Who would do that, who would use what Rome had been through as a convenient excuse?

But then Rome looked at his sister, again, she had enough to worry about, she was like their father, on a constant worry level and Rome didn't want to add to that any more than he already had.

"It's nothing Lex, I'm just really tired," he explained, even though she clearly didn't believe him.

"You sure? You know you can tell me."

Rome nodded

"I know, thanks Lex, it was just a long day and I'm still getting really tired," she nodded and put an arm around his shoulders, he didn't squirm from this, he just let his sister hold him.

Xxx

Castle wasn't home when they walked into the loft, neither was gram, she had left a note about some theater meeting, Rome and Alexis had learned not to ask and their dad was still at the precinct with Beckett. Alexis offered to make Rome a snack, but to her surprise he just said 'no thank you' and headed up to his room, shutting his door behind him.

Inside, Rome threw off his backpack and jacket onto the floor and loosened the tie for his uniform. He had only a few things for homework but had no desire to actually do any of it, instead, he dropped to the floor and slid under his bed, reaching for the reusable shopping bag he had hidden there.

A few days before, Rome had gone into his father's office to borrow a highlighter, which wasn't in its usual spot in the desk drawer, so Rome went hunting, pulling open all the draws, wondering why it was so difficult to find a highlighter in the house. That was when a large manila envelope caught his attention.

Rome wasn't one to snoop, but curiosity got the best of him, especially when he saw it had a case number on it, he pulled the envelope out and almost had another full-on panic attack when the contents spilled out onto the office floor, he recognized the drawings instantly, granted they were clearly copies, but these were the drawings he had been forced to do for M…the clues that were meant to lead his father and the detectives on a wild goose chase around the city.

There was also notes, his father's handwriting all over the notebook paper, and there were tons of these notes, there were names and descriptions of different people and places, there were notes about his drawings, the different clues that Rome had hidden in the drawings, notes about M himself…a checklist with different things crossed off, this was what his dad had used to work the case, had used to find him.

As Rome had stared at all of this stuff he glanced up at his father's laptop, sitting in standby on the desk. Taking a deep breath, Rome slid into the rolling chair, turned the computer back on and went to the search file box. He wasn't really sure what he was looking for at this point or worse…what he was going to find, but Rome couldn't stop himself.

He typed in a few words he thought might work, like M's real name, all the places the publisher had made him draw, no such luck.

Then Rome closed his eyes as his mind flashed back to the factory…he had really been struggling to remember the details of what had happened between his dad and Detective Ryan freeing him and the hospital, some parts stood out better than others and he knew that at one point his dad had taken out his hearing aids, trying to help him not hear M's voice.

But Rome distinctly remembered something about the book that M had made Castle write. His dad had confirmed it the first night he was home from the hospital, there was a book, the police had it at the moment, but was it possible that there was a copy of it here on his dad's laptop?

As the cursor blinked, waiting for him to input something, Rome took a deep breath, wondering if he was about to regret what he was about to do, Rome clicked into advance search and set the search perimeters for the words 'heat, storm, Watson, and kidnapping' all in the same word document.

It took the computer only seconds to locate the file that Rome had hoped didn't exist. He timidly double-clicked on the document and the story that M had forced his dad to write appeared on the screen.

He wasn't sure why his dad had kept the story, maybe with all that was going on at the time, Castle just forgot that it was on his computer and hadn't gotten around to deleting it. But now that he could see it, Rome wanted to read it and at the same time, didn't want to read it.

Rome felt his heart pick up speed as he tried to read the story, he got through one page, before he couldn't read anymore, his whole body was shaking, he was having trouble breathing. This wasn't like one of his dad's usual works of fiction, his Derrick Storm novels, the new Nikki Heat, any of his dad's novels, this was real…at least as real as it could possibly be.

Quickly he made a move to exit out of the document, but as the mouse hovered over the x button, Rome wasn't ready to do that either, he couldn't explain why, but he wanted to read this thing in its entirety.

So Rome clicked on the print button instead, printing out the thirty-page document, he silently had begged for the printer to hurry up and finish its job before his dad got home or gram figured out what he was doing and when it was finally finished, Rome grabbed everything he had found and bolted out of his dad's office back to his room.

Now a week later, Rome had only managed to read two more pages. It was tougher than he thought and knew it must have been equally as tough on his dad trying to write something like this.

One of the main reasons it was tough for Rome to read was not because the story was virtually about his kidnapping, but the fact that he saw what M had seen…the potential for such a story involving two of his dad's characters, one who was already world-famous and the other who was probably about to be. That thought was the most terrifying to Rome because he hated to think that he shared even a small thought like M.

To try and calm/counter this, Rome did what always made him relax, he drew. Instead of focusing on the graphic novel he had been working on for two years or some random sketch, Rome drew the illustrations from the book.

He used his dad as the basis for Derrick Storm and Detective Beckett as the basis for Detective Heat, he drew them at the 12th, Detectives Ryan and Esposito, and Captain Montgomery, all as their alter-egos, standing around a whiteboard Rome had seen the last time he was at the precinct.

Talking with Dr. Goldberg had definitely done wonders for Rome's recovery, but this was also helping him come to terms with what he had gone through, he didn't understand why it helped, but it did. Reading the story his dad had written, drawing the scenes from it, it terrified him and at the same time, helped just a bit.

Rome tended to lose himself in his art in a regular instance, and this was no different, he was so focused on the sketch, that he almost missed the vibrations of footsteps coming up the stairs towards his room. He paused, recognizing the footsteps as his father's, he glanced up at his calendar and winced.

With his dad helping Detective Beckett the last few days on one last case, Rome had gotten once again gotten used to his dad coming home late, but tonight would be an exception to that, it was poker night.

Rome looked at his watch which read 6:50, in just a few hours, Castle's friends and fellow writers would be coming over to play a few hands of poker with his dad.

Normally Rome couldn't wait for these nights, his dad would let him play one or two hands, he'd manage to sucker at least a hundred bucks out of Mr. Connelly or Mr. Patterson, give his dad a good chuckle at beating the grownups, then head to bed or to read.

It had been a tradition that had been going on for as long as Rome could remember, his dad had taught him and Alexis how to play poker when they were both little, Alexis could play, but had little interest in the game, while Rome who relied on facial tells when his hearing was acting up tended to do really well.

He knew when someone was bluffing or what kind of hand they might have, just by reading their faces. He could even sort of do it with professionals when he watched the World Series of Poker with his dad.

This was, however, the first poker night since his kidnapping and he wasn't entirely sure what his dad had told the other authors, especially Uncle Stephen. Granted he wasn't really Rome and Alexis' uncle, Stephen Cannel had been friends with Castle for a long time, he was a mentor of sorts to their father and had helped him get his career going in the beginning and remained a close family friend and mentor to the entire family.

Rome and Alexis loved their Uncle Stephen, but Rome wasn't ready for even more people to be concerned about him, to ask him how he was doing, all of that stuff. Plus, Stephen Cannell was the only one of Castle's poker buddies who knew Rome's lying or in some cases, bluffing tell, IE chewing the inside of his cheek. So Rome knew that if he said he was fine and Cannell kept prodding, he would know that Rome was lying.

Quickly Rome put everything back in his bag, the sketch included, and shoved everything under his bed, he turned the Xbox on in passing, before collapsing in his gaming chair, as if he had been there the entire time, just as his dad knocked twice, before pushing open the door.

"Hey kiddo," he called waving, Rome looked up and gave his dad a grin, hoping it didn't look too forced.

"Hi dad," he said, "what are you doing home so early?" Rome asked, "aren't you still helping Detective Beckett?"

Castle chuckled

"I am Doc, but did you forget what today is?"

Rome pretended to look at his calendar and nodded

"Oh yeah, poker night," he replied and Castle gave him a funny look

"Yeah poker night, come on Doc you're usually more excited than this for it. You're usually bouncing off the walls waiting for everyone to get here."

"Sorry dad," Rome said softly "just a little tired."

Castle walked into the room and sat down at Rome's desk, scooting over in the rolling chair so he was right next to Rome.

"Your sister said that you told her you were tired, everything okay Rome?" he asked, reaching over to push Rome's bangs back out of habit, also as a way to check Rome's forehead for a fever.

"Everything's fine dad, I promise, it was just a long day at school, we played street hockey in gym and I kinda overdid it." Rome lied, he felt terrible about it, him and his dad didn't keep secrets from each other, Christmas and birthday presents were the only exception to the secret rule in the Castle family. But he didn't want to tell his dad he had gotten into a fight with his friends, because telling his dad that, would mean explaining why the fight had happened in the first place.

Castle seemed to know that Rome didn't give the whole story but apparently decided to let it go, for the time being.

"So," he said changing the subject "getting ready to defend the universe from the hordes of zombies with your friends?"

Rome felt his chest tighten a bit, the Xbox had already connected to Live, and he could see that Gage, Todd, Kevin, and Joey's avatars were milling around, their creators were not on.

"No, I was just going to play solo for a little while, I finished my homework at school during study hall."

"Play solo?" Castle asked "you're not even meeting up with Kevin to play? You guy are so set in your ways with that game I never thought I'd see the day you'd break that."

Rome shrugged, he couldn't understand why he couldn't tell his dad what had happened at school, again him and Alexis had never kept something from their dad, not something important anyways. He was their confidant, they could always tell their dad anything and knew it, but for some reason, Rome couldn't explain anything, he wanted to, he really wanted to, but couldn't.

"I…I," he couldn't even lie anymore, he didn't want to say anything, ashamed to keep lying to his dad.

"Romey, kiddo, hey, hey it's okay," Castle paused "did you get in a fight with Kevin?" he asked and Rome shook his head "no? Sure sounds like it."

"Kev…Kevin wasn't in school today, he was getting fitted for his braces," Rome said softly

"Okay, so not Kevin, did you have a fight with Joey?" Castle guessed and Rome shrugged, Castle knew that shrug "Todd?" another shrug "Gage?" now Rome gave a half shrug "all three of them?" he asked in shock "doc what happened?" instead of answering, Rome shrugged again and leaned into his gaming chair deeper, hoping to disappear into the material. "Roman come on, enough with the shrugging,"

"It was nothing," Rome said softly "just a stupid argument."

"Over what?" Castle prodded gently

Every part of Rome's being was screaming for him to keep quiet, not tell his dad and he didn't like that.

"The…" he was really trying to fight whatever was holding him back, but whatever it was, it took his voice.

"Doc, sign it to me if you want, I just want to know what's bothering you kiddo, I want to make sure you're okay. I don't like seeing you like this."

Rome wanted to, he really, really did, but his dad was stressing out enough about him, worried enough over him, Rome didn't want to add to that.

"Really dad, it was nothing, we're all mad at each other, Todd's mad at Gage, Gage is mad at Joey, Joey's mad at me, it started in gym, when uh, Gage kicked the ball and it hit Todd in the head and we all kind of argued about who hit who." Rome lied, hoping, begging that his dad wouldn't know he was lying, wouldn't see his tell, Rome did his best not to chew the inside of his cheek. "Like I said, it was a stupid argument, it'll blow over by tomorrow, you know Todd, can't hold a grudge to save his life."

Rome didn't miss the hurt look on his dad's face, he had never, ever told a lie that like to his dad, he knew he had lied, Castle knew he had lied, but neither said anything, but Rome knew he had just hurt his dad's feelings, but he couldn't change it.

"Oh, okay kiddo," Castle reached over and ruffled Rome's hair forcing a smile "if it doesn't blow over let me know okay? I hate for you guys to be mad at each other,"

"K dad,"

"Want to help me set up the poker table? You can pick the deck of cards out if you want."

Rome took a deep breath

"Sure dad, let me just save my game," Rome replied, watching as his dad walked out of his room. He turned off the game and started to follow his dad, a flash caught his attention alerting him to his phone. It was a text from Todd, asking him to go online so they could talk, then another came this one from Gage, then from Joey, and even Kevin. Apparently, word had gotten back to him and Rome couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Instead of replying to the text message and the incoming phone call from Gage, Rome hit ignore on the call and turned his phone off. He wanted nothing to do with them right now, it was bad enough that his friends were mad at him, but now he had actually lied to his father.

Everyone kept telling him that things would get better, that it would go back to normal, he was pretty sure they were dead wrong.


	4. Chapter 4

When the buzzer rang a few hours later, it was Alexis, not Rome who ran to the door to greet the guests, usually Rome was all over that, as soon as he saw the lights flashing or on a good hearing day, heard the buzzer go off, especially on poker night, he'd be at the door in seconds. Not this time though, he barely looked up when the lights flickered.

Alexis sighed at her brother and threw open the door, Stephen Cannell, smiled wide at Alexis and held out his arms to hug her.

"Alexis, how are you?"

"Good uncle Stephen,"

"How's your Master's thesis coming along?" he asked with a sly grin behind his scraggly beard, it was a running joke between the two that had been occurring since Alexis was about six.

"It's coming," she replied smiling "still have to survive high school first and the craziness of that."

Cannell looked around

"speaking of crazy," he started "where's your brother? How come he's not bouncing off the wall? He's usually all over these poker games."

Alexis nodded sadly towards the family room where the poker table was set up. Rome had his back to the door and was playing with the cards; shuffling them, bridging them, as well as trying to spread them out across the table then flip them over in one scoop.

"He said he was tired from school today and I think his hearing is acting up," Alexis explained, "I don't' think he even heard the buzzer or saw the lights flashing."

"Poor kid, well I know something that will cheer him right up," Cannell said mysteriously and Alexis tilted her head wondering what it was "Michael Connelly is coming tonight too and he's apparently sworn up and down that he's going to win at least one hand against Rome. I didn't have the heart to tell him he's biting off more than he can chew, Rome may very well walk away with a good chunk of money tonight because he's planning on betting high."

Alexis chuckled, that actually might work, Rome was good at poker, and mainly because of his hearing difficulties he had learned at an early age to read facial cues as well as lips to extract information from people. All the authors in Castle's circle of friends as well as his other poker buddies, Mayor Weldon, Judge Markaway, and Captain Montgomery, had each learned the hard way not to underestimate Rome's poker ability.

"I think Rome will like that," Alexis replied, "he's been off and on lately, one minute he'll be his usual goofy self, then the next he's moping around, maybe this will be the kick he needs."

Cannell's face went sympathetic

"So he's doing just okay?" he asked and she nodded "What about your dad? How has he been doing with all of this?"

Alexis looked around the loft as if she was checking for her father when she was confident he wasn't within earshot she sighed

"About the same as Rome to be honest, though neither of them seems willing to admit anything, sometimes I think that they might be mad at each other, they haven't played video games together since Rome came home and the other day dad and I were getting the lazar tag stuff ready and dad asked Rome if he wanted to play and he just signed 'no thanks' and walked off. I think dad's a little hurt that Rome isn't ready to talk to us about what happened, he's barely comfortable talking to the therapist. I don't know what to do with either of them at this point, neither does gram, they've never acted like this towards each other."

"Your dad is pretty stubborn honey, and I'm afraid Rome's right behind him," Cannell smiled a little and rubbed his chin "though it certainly must be genetic because you've got your own stubborn side to you too."

Alexis rolled her eyes and laughed a little

"I don't think so,"

"I rest my case," Cannell replied, smiled "what about you Alexis, are you doing okay? This whole thing couldn't have been easy on you or Martha either."

"I'm doing good considering, I'm just happy to have Rome back safe and sound, even if he is a little grumpy, I guess considering what he went through it's understandable, I'm just happy to have my brother back either way. I just wish him and dad would talk"

"They will just need to give them time and don't forget if they're taking too much time give me a call and I'll take care of both of them." That got a smile out of Alexis who chuckled "anyways, let me go pick Rome's brain a little, see if I can get anything out of him."

"Good luck," Alexis said with a shrug

Rome didn't even notice when Cannell walked into the room. Alexis was right about his hearing, it was in fact gone for the night. Rome didn't know if it was just the natural progression of his hearing loss or if his time in the cold factory, the infection of his foot, and the seizures that he had suffered as a result of his kidnapping, had played a part in his hearing becoming less reliable, much quicker. But Rome hated to add to his dad's worry, so he hadn't said anything and pretended things were still perfectly normal with his hearing.

But the fact that he didn't realize that his dad's poker buddies had started to arrive had nothing to do with him being still out of it from his fight with his friends or the whole lying thing to his dad, nor did it have anything to do with his lack of hearing.

Rome was completely focused on the cards and trying to master a shuffling trick that he was having trouble with…spreading the cards out and flipping them back over in one swoop. He had been doing all he could to take his mind off of the fight and the lying and working on this card trick took most of his attention.

Castle had trained Rome and Alexis at an early age how to act as the dealer in his card games. Knowing they were both still young enough that they wouldn't know any of the cheating tricks, it just made them that much more trusting to his poker buddies.

So whether they were playing poker, blackjack, or even a game his dad was trying to revive called speculation, Rome or Alexis acted as the dealer and Rome loved it.

Of course, it had caused some problems in the past, like when Rome was in first grade and the class was having a special family day. In preparation for the day, the kids were asked to stand up in front of their classmates and explain who they were inviting, why they had picked that family member, and talk about what they most loved to do together.

Rome had so many things he loved doing with his dad he had trouble picking one and blurted out the first one that came to mind, mainly because the previous night had been a poker night at the Castle loft. Rome exclaimed proudly that he was his daddy's dealer.

That had been an awkward moment, to say the least, and was certainly a phone call Castle never expected to receive or a meeting he expected to attend at Marlowe Prep.

It was a long and tedious process to explain to the teacher, the guidance counselor, Principal Simmons, and the school nurse Mrs. Franklin that when Rome said he was the dealer, he meant for card games, that Rome liked handing out the cards to everyone.

The guidance counselor, of course, confirmed that after talking to Rome. He proudly told her that his daddy had taught him how to bridge the cards and shuffle them without playing fifty-two pick up, which was all the counselor needed to hear to be relieved.

Rome had since mastered almost all the techniques for dealing cards, except for the spread and flip, he couldn't get it to work right and was determined to do it, if anything to show Michael Connelly who had shown him the trick at the last poker game, that he had mastered it.

Rome's main problem was his wrists were still acting up and spreading the cards was easy, but for some reason his movements had turned clumsy and awkward and what should've been an easy move was really tough.

So Rome was so focused on the cards he hadn't noticed the lights in the loft flashing, he hadn't seen Alexis stare at him in surprise, dumbfounded that he wasn't running to the door, and he didn't notice Cannell walking on the carpet towards him.

Needless to say, Rome jumped a few inches out of his chair when Cannell tapped his shoulders gently.

"Aiee!" he squeaked, turning around quickly, before grinning wide at Cannell "Uncle Stephen!" he exclaimed turning around to hug the author.

Cannell, having known the Castle kids a lot longer and been around them more than some of the other authors was better at sign language than most of them, excluding Patterson who wasn't fair behind, and most of the authors have been friends with Castle for most of Rome's life, weren't horrible at signing, they just weren't as good as Cannell or even Patterson.

So Cannell was able to sign to Rome pretty well, which was a good thing because Rome usually had a hard time reading his lips, mainly because of the facial hair, which tended to obstruct his lips.

"Hey, Dr. Watson. Didn't mean to scare you kiddo,"

"You didn't,"

"You meant to jump nearly a foot into the air right?" Cannell asked and Rome nodded quickly

"Of course, I knew you were behind me the whole time,"

"Right…so kiddo how have you been?"

"Pretty good," Rome replied as Cannell let him go, sliding into the seat next to him, his usual seat for the Castle poker games.

"What are you up too?" Cannell asked nodding at the cards spread out on the table "trying to determine the best way to swindle Connelly?"

Rome grinned and shook his head

"No, I don't have to swindle him, he gets overconfident and basically throws his hand each time, least that's what dad said." he paused and his grin got wider, matching his father's "is he coming tonight?"

"As a matter of fact, he is,"

"Excellent, there's a new video game coming out next week that I want to buy."

"Just out of curiosity Rome, is that how you buy anything you don't ask your father for? The money you get from playing poker against us?"

"Well, I'm too young to get a job and apparently too young to sell my artwork. So I got to use what skills I have." Rome replied and Cannell laughed

"That-a-boy," Cannell ruffled Rome's hair "so what are you trying to do?"

"Flip the cards, it's not working right I keep messing up," Rome admitted, he spread the cards out and demonstrated his problem to Cannell, who watched intently. "See," Rome grumbled as the deck once again refused to flip like a domino effect Rome was hoping for.

"I do see, I think your problem is your trying to do all the work." Rome looked up at Cannell confused "you start the domino effect, the cards themselves should fall into place on their own, watch." Cannell took the deck of cards from Rome and carefully spread them out in a straight line, Rome had been putting them into a horseshoe shape.

"So I was doing it wrong?" he asked, slightly disappointed, he was sure his technique was right it was just the execution that he was screwing upon.

"Not necessarily Rome, I've seen it done both ways when you're learning though, this way is easier, trust me. I can guarantee you'll have mastered this before the night is over and you won't even realize it."

Rome watched in awe as Cannell slid his hand under a stack of the cards and with one swoop flipped them in a perfect domino until they were all face-up.

"Wow!" he exclaimed, "that is so cool!"

"Okay kid, now it's your turn." Cannell scooped the cards back up and handed the deck to Rome. "When you're spreading them out make sure you don't leave too much space between the cards, too much space means there will be a gap in the domino."

Rome nodded, he knew he had been doing that, despite his best efforts not to. Carefully he spread the cards out, mindful of the gaps between each one

"Like that?" he asked and Cannell nodded

"Just like that, okay, nice and gentle, go for it."

Rome carefully lifted up the bottom card of the spread and gave it a flick like Cannell had done and the cards flipped in a domino effect, just like they were supposed to. Rome grinned wide

"I did it!"

"See, I told you that you could do it. Now keep practicing that and before you know it you'll be able to put them in the horseshoe."

"Thank you, Uncle Stephen," Rome said

"Anytime kid," Cannell replied, ruffling Rome's hair a bit before his face went serious "so you doing okay?" Rome winced, he hated to have yet another person worrying on his behalf. "Rome?"

"I'm doing better, I promise,"

"You know you've got a lot of people on your bench right kid? We're all here for you if you need us,"

"I know," Rome said, trying to reassure Cannell who didn't look like he was buying Rome's claim of 'doing better.' Carefully, he changed the subject "do you remember that sketch I started a while back, last time you and Mr. Patterson were over for poker night, last spring?"

Cannell nodded

"Of course I remember, why?"

"'cause dad bought me a whole case of India Ink and I was able to turn it into a graphic novel scene, I lettered it and everything."

"Did you now?" Cannell asked smiling "well go get it Rome I'd love to see it!"

Rome grinned and bolted towards the stairs, Alexis who was in the kitchen getting a snack to take up to her room to finish studying for a biology test, watched her little brother run up the stairs, after glancing towards the poker table for a moment, she left her snack on the counter and followed him.

Castle came out of his office and waved at Cannell

"Thought I heard you come in,"

"What was your first clue, Ricky?" Cannell shot back with a smile, shaking Castle's hand

"Glad you could make it, James coming?"

"No, he's got some big signing in Chicago this weekend, said he'll catch up with us. Michael is coming though,"

"Yeah, he called about forty-five minutes ago, said he's stuck in traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, why he is coming that way only he knows."

"I have stopped asking what goes through that man's head sometimes."

"Anyways, how have you been?" Castle asked as the pair headed towards the kitchen "beer?"

"Of course, you do not have to ask me twice,"

"Good, 'cause if I did, I was going to call for an ambulance." Castle paused as he uncapped both bottles and handed one to Cannell, they clinked the bottles together and each took a sip "so life's been good?" Castle asked

"Not so bad could be better could be worse. What about you, did you get that new book finished or did you start procrastinating again?"

"Edited and at the publisher as we speak, looking at a book launch in just a few weeks, goes on sale soon too."

"Not bad Ricky, I'm impressed."

"Good you should be, I tell you I'm a changed man, not the procrastinator I used to be," Cannell raised an eyebrow as he took a swig of his beer. "Scouts honor," Castle added grinning

"That's your story and you're sticking to it huh?" Castle's grin widened "typical,"

Meanwhile upstairs, Rome rushed into his room and dove at his desk to try and find his graphic novel folder. His artwork was one of the few things Rome was meticulous about keeping organized. Each style of artwork was in specific folders and he knew exactly where each piece was.

He flipped through his graphs novel pictures, all his pictures were in chronological order starting on the date he finished them. So he found his graphic novel sketch pretty quick. He carefully released it from the three-ring binder and turned to head out of his room only to stop short when he spotted Alexis standing on his doorway, arms crossed looking pretty mad. The phrase 'if looks could kill' would definitely be an appropriate statement.

"Hi Lex," Rome said softly "what's up? I thought you had a test to study for?"

"And I thought you weren't feeling good?"

"I said I was tired, not that I wasn't feeling good, there's a big difference." As soon as he said it Rome knew he had just said the wrong thing, the look of death from Alexis was powerful and he winced.

"Okay enough is enough what is going on Rome, something happened at school today and I want to know what it was."

"I already told dad; Todd, Gage, Joey and I all got into an argument today at the gym, it'll blow over by tomorrow. It's just stupid kid stuff."

"Yeah, dad told me that someone got hit with a ball and that's why you guys were fighting,"

"Exactly"

"You're lying"

"I am not!" Rome argued, going louder than he meant to. It was always so hard to judge his own volume when his hearing was on the fritz and since he had decided to do without his hearing aids for the night, it was even worse.

"Dad knows you are and I know you are, and more importantly you know you are, dad is just letting it go for now, but I'm not. You and I have never ever kept secrets from each other, we've always told each other EVERYTHING! From the day you came home from the hospital, I told you everything and when you started to talk you told me everything. I know what you went through was horrible and none of us could ever begin to understand or even relate to it-"

"And I hope that stays true," Rome muttered, interrupting his sister "I hope none of you ever hafta go through that. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, ever."

"Exactly my point, only you understand what you went through but that doesn't mean you have to shut us out and believe we can't help you."

Rome hung his head for a second he knew his sister was right and boy did he hate to admit that.

"Fine, but you can't tell dad, he'll just worry more and I can't take him worrying about me anymore,"

Alexis hesitated on that, like Rome she had never kept something from their dad, least nothing serious and even though she wanted to help Rome she hated to agree to that kind of promise.

Not to mention Rome still didn't understand his plan to make his dad worry less was actually having the opposite effect, each time Rome brushed his dad off, Castle was growing more and more worried.

"Come to Rome,"

"Swear to it Lex," Rome demanded

"Rome I-I-"

"Pinky swear Alexis," Rome held out his pinky finger.

Now, this was really pushing it handshakes and pinky swears was a big deal in the Castle family, to break that promise was serious.

Alexis really didn't want to agree, but she knew she had to agree of only to get Rome to talk to her, she hated to play on their close bond as brother and sister, but there was no other way.

She knew there was a really good chance she would be breaking that promise if only to help Rome and their dad reconcile.

"Fine Rome, but let it be known I don't like keeping something like this from dad, this isn't right, and you know it just as well as I do."

"Noted, but it's on me, not you I'll take the brunt from it."

Alexis rolled her eyes, she really, really didn't like this at all.

"Now tell me what's going on,"

"Okay yes I did get into a fight today, I wasn't lying about that,"

"Okay, so what was the fight about?"

"That would be where the lie came from," Rome replied sighing he hesitated and Alexis glared at him.

"You made me pinky swear you better hold up your side of the deal! Or I will go right to dad and tell him everything," Alexis exclaimed and Rome winced

"Fine! Todd got mad at me, in gym, saying he was sick of me not telling them what was wrong, Gage and Joey got involved; they said I was lying to them and they were tired of it. I wasn't lying though, I just wasn't giving them the whole story. I was trying to protect them, I've been trying to protect them and they think I'm doing this to ruin our friendship, that I don't trust them. They were mad because they thought I didn't trust them; so the three of them spent the rest of the day giving me the silent treatment like babies."

"That's why you were so upset?" Alexis asked and Rome shook his head quickly "it's not?"

"Last period during homeroom we've got it together and they were still ignoring me, I didn't even sit with them at lunch that's how bad it was. Anyways I couldn't take it anymore so right before announcements I walked up to them and explained everything, what was going on why I had been trying to protect them, why they were being selfish and that I didn't even care anymore if they didn't want to give me a chance to… I dunno heal or whatever." Rome's lip started to quiver and Alexis could see the tears in his eyes and it broke her heart. "I told them, Lex, I told them everything and then I stormed off. That's why I wanted to get away from school so quick. 'Cause now my best friends are mad at me, they probably hate me, by now they've told their parents and now their parents aren't gonna let us be friends anymore," Rome managed to whimper out before dropping to the bottom bunk and sniffling

"Oh Rome," Alexis cooed sitting down next to her brother trying to comfort him.

"Go ahead and tell dad I don't care anymore, tell him I'm not going back to Marlowe, I wanna go to Lexington. I never want to go back to Marlowe ever,"

Alexis hugged his shoulders but was at a loss for words. This was an issue for their dad to handle, this went way beyond a sister's capabilities and Alexis knew it, she knew she was grossly out of her element here.

"You know, talking to dad about this might help Rome, I know you don't want to worry him, but to be honest when you keep brushing him off like this you're only worrying him more."

Rome sniffed, ran his sleeve across his nose and made a face, he knew his sister was right…again.

"Bu-but." He managed to say

"But what?" Alexis asked

"Is dad mad at me?"

Alexis hugged his shoulders tight, he looked so little and pathetic, his eyes red from the tears.

"Of course he's not mad, he's just worried Rome, we all are."

Rome took a deep breath

"Did I do the right thing telling Gage, Todd, and Joey?" He paused "I've been trying to avoid telling them, but they gave me no choice, but still should I have fought harder to not tell them? Do you think they're mad at me?"

"Rome, those are serious questions for dad or even gram, not me."

"I know," Rome replied hanging his head a bit "I'm sorry,"

Alexis shook her head

"No don't apologize to me for that Rome, seriously, I'm just glad you talked to me, even if I had to basically corner you to do it."

"I'll try to be better about that too Lex, I don't like keeping things from you or dad, especially you."

Alexis leaned over and looked at Rome's bedside clock

"You might want to get downstairs, Mr. Connelly should be here soon and you know he's going to want to play a couple of hands with you." She handed him a tissue from his desk and he blew his nose and nodded

"Uncle Stephen said he's planning on betting high just to try and beat me," Alexis hugged Rome tight again and kissed the top of his head, at the kiss he started to squirm away "ew Lexis, no kissing!" he grumbled, running out of his room with the sketch to show Cannell.

Before she left his room, Alexis noticed Rome's phone was on the floor, it was typical to find most of Rome's belongings on the floor, but he was pretty careful with electronics so she picked it up, accidentally hitting the power button to turn the phone back on.

She was surprised when it chirped back to life since Rome rarely if ever turned his phone off, if only because he was constantly playing games on it, she didn't expect it to be off, let alone be sensitive enough to turn back on so easily.

What Alexis was also not expecting was the alerts on the phone, Rome had twenty missed calls from four different numbers she recognized as Todd, Gage, Joey, and Kevin's, sixteen voicemail messages, and about thirty text messages. She sighed and put the phone back on Rome's desk, he may believe his friends were mad at him and hated him, but their attempts to get in touch with him was proof that he was wrong on that front too.

xxx

Rome managed to outplay his dad's friends for two hands, and Castle was tempted to let him just stay down with them and play because he saw life returning to Rome's eyes, his son was having fun and enjoying himself which had been rare the last few weeks.

But Castle also knew that Rome was getting tired, he was still recovering from his kidnapping and got tired very early, needing to sleep a lot more than he had prior to the event. So after two hands, Castle sent Rome to bed, with no protest from Rome, he bid his dad and the other authors goodnight and accepted bedtime without a fuss.

Not long after he had headed to bed, the discussion around the table turned to the case that Castle was working on, once he explained how he managed to get back into the precinct to work a case anyways.

"It's a pretty good story, Ricky. Yeah, it's got a big opening, major twist." Cannell said checking his hand.

Connelly grinned a little

"Though I gotta say, I saw that whole "drug mule" thing coming." He said matter-of-factly and Castle and Cannell both scoffed at him

"Nice try, Connelly. You're not gonna goad me into raising." Castle replied, Cannell, sighed at the two younger authors and grinned a little before his face went serious.

"Ricky serious note, how's Rome doing? Talked to both him and Alexis but didn't get much out of Rome, Alexis seems worried about him,"

Castle shrugged

"He's been okay, the nightmares are still happening, but not as often. The doctor and the psychologist said it's going to take time."

Connelly nodded

"Considering what he went through Rick, it's understandable, but he's talking about it right, not holding it in?"

"He's talking, sort of, he's not talking to me, but this therapist the doctor recommends, she's a miracle worker, he's talking to her so at least he's talking to someone. I just wish he'd talk to me, even a little bit about how he's feeling. But again it's going to take some time, he's slowly coming back to his old self. He's gone back to being afraid of the dark, needs a nightlight on constantly. I'm constantly going in his room to check on him, I've been making him sleep on the bottom bunk because he keeps scaring himself so bad he falls out of bed, almost broke his arm the first night he did it. When I go in there to check on him, he's curled up in a little ball, shivering and whimpering and sucking his thumb, he hasn't done that since he was four." Castle finished throwing a few chips into the pot.

"Sorry to hear that Ricky," Cannell replied sympathetically and Connelly nodded in agreement.

"I'm just afraid this whole thing has changed him permanently, I get that it's going to take time for him to heal, I mean it's only been a few weeks, but I hate to think he's going to be a different kid because of all this."

"I don't think it's permanent Rick, he's a mini you, he's a tough little guy, always has been. He'll come around, give him some time to heal, you all will be able to move on from this in time." Cannell reassured, offering his own tone of reason and wisdom.

Castle sighed, he hated to bring this all out during poker night, it was supposed to be a fun night with his friends, but he hadn't had anyone to really vent to about this and knew if there was anyone he could do just that to it was these guys.

"To be honest guys, it's hard to look past the fact that none of this would have happened if it wasn't for my books."

Both fellow authors looked at each other and then at Castle in surprise

"You seriously can't believe that Rick, we can't control how the world interprets our books, how they interpret movies, video games, any of those things that the media and attorneys try to blame when someone breaks the law or something horrible happens." Connelly pointed out and Cannell nodded

"Michael's right Ricky, we write fiction, things from our own imagination and own creation. Most of society sees it for what it is, entertainment, harmless entertainment, it's the minority that sees it as something else that is to blame. Do you remember a few years ago that guy that contacted Patterson's agent?"

Connelly and Castle exchanged a look, both trying to remember and getting nowhere for a few seconds. Then it clicked with Connelly.

"Oh yeah, Rick you remember that the guy said that if James didn't stop making those commercials about offing Alex Cross if people don't buy the book he'd find Alex Cross and take him out himself."

"Forgot about that," Castle muttered

"It's not the same thing, but your occupation doesn't give someone the right to kidnap your kid Rick," Cannell reminded him.

Connelly nodded

"He's right Rick. Hey speaking of Patterson, he said that, that Martin guy pleaded guilty, didn't even want to go through a trial? That true?"

Castle nodded

"Yeah, didn't ask for a lawyer, nothing, just confessed and accepted his sentence. I was sure he was going to try and go with an insanity defense, but he didn't. Judge gave him the max,"

"Who was the judge?" Connelly asked

"Coincidently it was Markaway, he got notification of the case first, but because he's a friend he had to recuse himself, he made the recommendation for the judge who did end up getting it and he was right. She was a good choice,"

Cannell nodded

"That's good, it saves Rome from having to testify or anything. He's a strong kid Ricky, but I don't think he'd be able to handle taking the stand, at least not yet. But he'll get through this, he's got a good support system here, you're all he needs right now. As I said, he'll get through this, you all will, it's just going to take time."

Castle nodded his appreciation

"Thanks, Stephen," he said

"Anytime. And anytime you or Rome need to talk, I'm just a phone call away"

"That goes for me to Rick," Connelly spoke up "that goes for any of us,"

Castle couldn't help the smile, he nodded again

"I really appreciate it guys, I know Rome well too he looks up to you guys."

Xxx

Upstairs, Alexis could hear her father and his author friends talking and heard the conversation about Rome. She sighed and went down the hall to Rome's room, he was supposed to be asleep, but it wouldn't be the first time she'd caught him up past his bedtime, reading, playing a video game, or sketching, she had been diligent in checking on him since he came home, keeping her ears perked for the sounds of him having a nightmare, ready to go in and comfort him. She had made it a habit to look in on him before she went to bed, just as their dad did for both of them before he went to bed. She pushed open his door and peeked in, he was on the top bunk, even though he was supposed to be sleeping on the bottom.

She walked in to get a better look to check on him, the past few weeks he had been sleeping curled up in a little ball, shaking and shivering like he was cold and whimpering. But this time, he was sleeping peacefully, back to the way he used to sleep, he made the sighing noise that their father loved, but he wasn't curled up, wasn't shivering, and the biggest surprise, his thumb wasn't in his mouth. She hadn't noticed it before, but looking around his room, Alexis realized that the nightlight was off, he was sleeping under the glow-in-the-dark stars that covered both their ceilings.

Maybe things were getting back to normal, slowly, but surely, it was just going to take time. Alexis wondered if the change was because of her talk with him or if it was because deep down, Rome was relieved to not have to keep the ordeal from his friends anymore.

"Night Rome," she whispered and went back to her own room, she left her door open a crack, to fall asleep to her father's laughter from downstairs as the poker game continued.

xxx


	5. Chapter 5

Of course, Rome didn't tell his dad about the conversation he'd had with Alexis, how in his a fit of tears he decided that he didn't want to go to Marlow anymore if only to avoid his friends. Alexis, keeping her promise hadn't said anything either, but what Rome didn't know and what Alexis was fighting internally over, was that she was debating on telling their father about the conversation.

It had been weighing on her mind all night and when her alarm went off the next morning, she had made the decision, she was going to tell their dad.

Unfortunately, she didn't get a chance to because Rome beat her down to breakfast. When she walked downstairs, he was in his usual spot pouring a glass of milk, while Castle made him scrambled eggs,

"Hey sweetie, good morning," Castle called scooping eggs onto Rome's waiting plate "scrambled eggs?"

"Uh, yes, sure, thank you," Alexis said sliding into the stool next to her brother, he looked up at her and grinned

"Morning Lex," he said taking a big forkful of scrambled eggs

"Morning," Alexis replied, she looked Rome over carefully, looking for any trace of the breakdown from the previous night. In all honesty, Rome looked, well, his usual self, pre-kidnapping, like all the stress and pain he had been going through was lifted, even if it was just a little bit.

If that weight had been lifted just from a few minutes of him venting, Alexis could only imagine what it would do for him to actually talk to their dad and vent to him. But she knew it was really going to take time, Rome wasn't ready and she didn't know why.

"Doc, are you still going to Todd's after school?" Castle asked, depositing eggs on Alexis' plate, before taking some for himself

Rome took a big gulp of milk as if he was trying to avoid answering that as long as possible before he nodded.

"Yeah, right after school, Todd's brother is going to walk us home 'cause his parents are going to Long Island for a few hours to visit his grandparents."

"So you guys worked things out then?"

"Uh…yeah, Todd, er texted me last night and apologized for getting mad, we're going to talk to Joey and Gage at school. It was a stupid fight anyways, but I guess we were all kind of due for one."

Alexis looked at Rome hard, his ears were just a little red, always his tell that he was lying, but Castle was fixing himself a cup of coffee and didn't notice right away. Rome looked over at Alexis and looked away quickly, he pretended to be scratching at his ears when Castle turned around.

"And do you need me to pick you up?" Castle asked,

"Nope, Bryce, Todd's older brother is going to walk me home, I've got my key," Rome explained, he wouldn't look at his sister, as if he knew she was aware he was up to something, and as if he was feeling guilty about the lie he had just told. She would definitely be interrogating him on the way to school today.

"Okay, sounds good, if anything changes just call my cell, I'll be with Detective Beckett, but I'll keep my phone on."

Rome grinned and now he looked at his sister

"Unless you're going on a raid." he pointed out and Castle rolled his eyes

"Good point, yes, in that case, my phone will be on silent, but I will check it periodically." Castle raised his eyebrow "Doc are your hearing aids bothering you? You seem to be scratching your ear a lot."

Rome gave him a shrug and nodded

"Just a little bit dad," he grinned "it'll be okay, I'm having a good hearing day, so if they start to really bother me I'll take them off," Rome said, finishing off his scrambled eggs with one last big forkful.

Alexis still wanted to talk to their dad, but Rome seemed to anticipate that, he had brought all of his school supplies down from his room, something he wasn't known for doing.

Unusually Alexis was standing by the door, asking Rome if he had certain things, then watching him scamper upstairs to retrieve them. From his backpack to his jacket, his homework, things like that he always forgot at least if not more of them and had to be reminded to go get them. But this time, Rome had everything he could possibly need, which meant there would be no chance of getting their dad alone and that really frustrated Alexis.

She finished off her breakfast and picked up both her plate and her brother's, depositing them in the sink. She'd make Rome do the dishes when he got home…from wherever he was going. She knew for a fact he wasn't going to Todd's, she just hoped whatever he was doing, it was going to help him.

Brother and sister gathered up their belongings and Castle kissed Alexis goodbye and started to give Rome a hug, but he hesitated for just a second, Rome had been shying away from hugs from him lately and he never knew when it was going to happen or not.

This time however Rome let his dad hug his shoulders and Castle felt a little bit of relief, maybe things were getting back to normal, Dr. Goldberg was right, Cannell and Connelly were right too, it was just going to take some time.

"Bye dad!" he shouted waving bye as he bolted towards the door, Alexis hesitated, this was it, this was her chance to clue their dad in, but before she could Rome darted back into the loft. "Come on Lex! I promised Mr. Tucker that I'd help him set up the microscopes class today."

Castle chuckled

"You heard that right Alexis? Your brother actually WANTS to get to school early, how often has THAT happened since he was three?"

Alexis forced out a laugh

"Not very often dad," she replied pulling on her jacket and picking up her bags. She paused as Rome was out the door again, she heard the elevator ding and really hoped he was waiting for her. "Dad," she said lowering her voice

"What's the matter, honey? Are you feeling okay, you seem kind of out of it?" Castle reached forward to feel Alexis' forehead, she shook her head, letting him know that wasn't it.

"No, I feel fine, it's just…well, what time are you going to be home from the prescient?"

"I don't know, I should be home for dinner if that's what you're asking, just to protect my offspring from their grandmother's cooking," that got a small smile from Alexis "that's it?" Castle asked "that great joke and all I get is that tiny smile?"

"I just need to talk to you,"

"Honey your brother can wait a little while longer, you guys still have plenty of time to get to school, I'm right here if you want to talk."

Alexis could practically feel Rome standing in the doorway, as if he could hear the entire conversation and knew she was about to betray his trust, that feeling washed over here and ran up and down her spine.

"No, it can wait, daddy, I promise. I know it's really early, but it's actually about" she paused and signed 'Rome's Christmas present' Great she thought, now I'm lying to dad, thanks a lot Rome. "I saw something he'd really like and I wanted to get your opinion on it when he's not around,"

Castle looked at her suspiciously for a second but decided to leave it be for the time being, even though he clearly didn't want to.

"Of course," he said, kissing the top of her head "have a great day okay?"

Alexis nodded

"You too, dad," she replied and joined Rome at the elevator.

Once they were outside on the street, Alexis followed Rome as he headed down the block, walking fast and being his usual goofy self. When they were a block from the school, she decided enough was enough. She reached out and grabbed the handle of Rome's backpack, pulling him to a quick stop.

Rome seemed stunned for a moment as he turned to face his sister, he clearly thought she was joking at first and he grinned at her

"Lex, what's with the breaks?" he asked, but stopped as soon as he saw the look on her face. "What's the matter?" he asked

"It's bad enough that you've got me keeping this whole thing from dad, but then, you go and blatantly lie right to him Rome?!"

Rome stared at her in shock

"When did I lie?" he asked

"When you told him you and Todd were still getting together after school!" Alexis shot back, she almost said 'when you said Todd texted you,' but she was able to stop herself on that one, mainly because she knew Rome would get suspicious, wondering how Alexis knew about the lack of texting. In order to know that information, she would've had to check Rome's phone, a complete invasion of privacy.

"I didn't lie!" Rome argued

"You didn't? So you and Todd just made up like that? One simple text and you guys are friends again?" Alexis prodded and Rome winced

"Look, I'm going to talk to dad tonight, I swear," Alexis gave him a look and Rome grumbled, shaking his head "I am, I just need to do something after school first, I gotta talk to someone first."

"Who?" when Rome didn't answer Alexis' glare narrowed "you swore no more secrets Rome, no more keeping things from me."

"After this, I promise, no more, I just got some things I need to take care of first, that's it, no more after today."

Alexis shook her head at him

"Just be careful Rome,"

"Careful of what?"

"Burning Bridges, you've got enough people right here, right now that want to help you, want to talk to you and make sure you're okay and you're brushing everyone off." Rome started to argue, but stopped and just looked away from his sister.

"Fine, message received." He paused "I'll be home before Dad gets back and I'll talk to dad tonight, just give me this afternoon Alexis, then you're off the hook. And if you want I won't ask you to cover for me, ever again." He finished and took off down the street heading for school.

Alexis sighed, she wondered if he was going to stay mad at her…she also wondered if she had just done the right thing. She knew Rome was dealing with a lot of stuff that she couldn't even possibly begin to understand and even though he was doing better, he was still hurting.

Their talk last night had helped and clearly it had taken some of the weight off of his shoulders, but her little brother was still hurting and she was concerned she had just made it worse.

Xxx

Rome managed to go the entire day avoiding his friends. All of them tried to speak to him, Kevin especially since he wasn't at school for the argument that started the whole problem, but Rome ignored them, he even went so far as to take his hearing aids out, hiding them in his backpack, something he hadn't done since he was little. He told his teachers that he was having a bad hearing day and that even the hearing aids weren't helping.

Mrs. Blackstone was all to happy to assist and it gave Rome the perfect excuse to stay away from his friends.

He wanted to talk to them, he really did, all four looked miserable and desperate to talk to him, but he had things he had to take care of first before that could happen.

Rome felt bad that he had blown up at his sister, especially over something so stupid, especially with how understanding she had been the previous night. He knew she just wanted to help. But he couldn't tell her where he was going, mainly because she'd try and stop him and worse, she'd tell their dad. He trusted his sister, there was no denying that, but he knew she hated keeping things from their dad and knew this was probably killing her.

What Alexis didn't know was that Rome may not have been entirely truthful or even forthcoming with where he was going after school, but he had a plan.

Rome was going to take the subway, something he had since mastered following his first attempt at walking home alone, he was going to the OCME, the Medical Examiner's office to go talk to Dr. Parish. He was running out of people who he really felt comfortable talking to. Dr. Goldberg was great and all and she was helping, but she only knew the story based on what she had been told, Rome wanted to talk to people who knew the whole story because they were involved in it.

He knew turning to Detective Beckett or even Ryan and Esposito, might get back to his father quicker, maybe there was a chance with Dr. Parish not spilling and just being able to sit and listen. Besides unlike the detectives, Dr. Parish could sign.

During Social Studies, while Mrs. Daley was discussing ancient Greece and the gods, Rome kept his attention partly on the map she had on the board, and partly on Mrs. Blackstone who was interpreting at the front of the room.

Rome winced a little when he felt someone poke him in the back. Isiah sat behind him in history and Rome couldn't even imagine what Isiah wanted during class, especially while Mrs. Daley was talking.

One of the downsides to needing an interpreter meant her eyes were always on Rome, making sure he was keeping up, so turning to see what Isiah wanted wouldn't be a good thing.

"Psst, Rome," he hissed, clearly forgetting that Rome had claimed hearing issues for the day "Rome, come on just put your hand down, I've got a note from Kevin and I don't want to get caught with it, please man,"

He was going to get both of them in trouble…all three of them if Kevin had been dumb enough to sign the note, more of their classmates might be in trouble too, considering Kevin's seat was all the way on the other side of the room, so that note had to pass through a lot of their classmates to reach Isiah.

So Rome raised his hand, Mrs. Daley had been adjusting smart-board, but turned to see Rome's hand, she smiled and called to him

"Yes, question Rome?" she asked, Mrs. Blackstone, signed it for him, even though there really wasn't a need,

"Mrs. Daley I'm sorry, but may I use the bathroom, it's an emergency." Rome heard Isiah groan behind him

"Go quick Rome, I know you don't want to miss the gods."

Rome nodded

"I'll be back in time I promise." He replied and walked up to the front of the room, he signed the sign-out sheet, grabbed the pass and bolted down the hall.

Instead of going to the bathroom, Rome just took the longest drink of water he could at the fountain. He was curious of course as to what the note from Kevin said, but at the same time, he didn't want to know. He stalled as long as he could before Rome knew he had to get back to class before Mrs. Daley or Mrs. Blackstone sent out a search party for him.

When he slipped back into class, Mrs. Daley was just discussing the twelve major gods of Olympus, she nodded as Rome came back in quietly and returned to his seat. When he opened his notebook, there was a note. No one seemed to notice it and as much as Rome wanted to read it then and there, there was still the issue of Mrs. Blackstone. So he folded it up and shoved it in his pocket, hoping Kevin saw this.

After class, Rome took his sweet time packing up his stuff, he watched as Kevin and Joey, who was also in the class slowly headed towards the door, obviously watching to see if Rome would read the note and when he didn't, they gave up, joining the throngs of sixth-graders moving to their next class. Mrs. Blackstone came up to Rome and patted his shoulder as she signed to him

'Rome are you, okay sweetie, you seem very distracted today."

"I'm fine Mrs. Blackstone, honest. I'm just tired, my dad's author friends were over last night for their weekly poker match, I kind of stayed up later than I should have."

Mrs. Blackstone smiled and shook her head

"Next time you'll think about that twice won't you?"

Rome nodded

"Yup," he replied,

"I will see you for math Rome, enjoy art okay?"

He nodded and watched her leave, before joining his classmates in the hall heading for their specials. As he walked, Rome reached into his pocket and pulled out the note.

-Rome, are you okay? Todd told me what happened yesterday and I'm sorry, we just want to talk. Please sit with us at lunch, we need to talk. Kev-

Rome rolled his eyes, he crumpled the note up in a tightwad and threw it in the trash as he walked by it, he wasn't ready to talk to them yet.

During homeroom, he did his best to avoid them even though all four were trying to talk to him.

To deter them, Rome grabbed Gabe and Braden and the three of them played hangman on the board. Gabe and Braden, though friendly with Rome, couldn't believe that he was deliberately ignoring Kevin, Gage, Joey, and Todd, but they let it go, both understanding that something had happened between the close group of friends.

When the bell finally rang and the sixth graders were dismissed, Rome bolted out the door, not even giving any of them a chance to talk to him. Alexis was waiting for him out on the steps like normal and she looked at him expectantly as he pulled on his newsie hat.

"Are you really going through with this?" she asked "if you aren't home before dad he is going to be so worried, do you really want to put him through that again Rome? How can you do this to him?"

Rome hung his head, feeling guilty, but he couldn't tell Alexis what he was doing, she'd have their dad on the phone in a minute, she'd find a way to prevent him from going.

"It'll be okay Lex, I promise…Thanks for covering for me, I owe you," he replied before taking off down the street, leaving Alexis standing there in surprise.

xxx

Rome slowed down when he rounded the corner, out of sight of his sister. He took out the directions he had printed off the previous night along with the address and the metro rail he needed to take to get midtown where the main office for the medical examiner was located.

Castle and Rome had gone over in detail the subway lines and which lines went where. After Rome's adventure the previous spring where he ended up on the subway accidentally, his dad did not want a repeat of that incident, so he taught Rome the lines and even bought him a pocket guide to help learn them.

It had taken a while, but Rome knew them now like the back of his hand, but that was mainly around the ShoHo area, going uptown, or even midtown wasn't something he had much experience with, especially by himself. But google earth had been very helpful in providing him with detailed instructions, which street to turn onto from school, where to catch the 6 train, to take that to Lexington Ave towards Pelham Bay Park, then to Twenty-Eighth street, then it was a short ten, fifteen minute walk to 520 1st Avenue. Rome knew he could do it…he had to do it.

The metro station was just around the corner and Rome had some bad flashbacks that made his heart race, remembering how scared he had been when he'd gotten swept up into the crowd of commuters and had ended up on a subway train that eventually brought him to Central Park.

But this time Rome was armed with a backup plan, he wasn't going to be caught off guard this time around. Not only had he studied the entire route, but he had looked into how the New York Transit authority assisted people with disabilities, especially ones with hearing problems. Rome would not be missing his stop this time around, he was getting on the right train and worse came to worse, he would use his hearing disability to his advantage.

He started his 'adventure' with pretty big butterflies crashing in his stomach, he was nervous, both about the journey to the office and the aftermath. He hoped he'd be back at the loft long before his dad, but there was a good chance that Rome could be facing some serious trouble. It was a risk, one he was willing to take, but that didn't make him feel any less nervous.

Rome knew that once he got off the subway, he'd feel a lot calmer, the subway ride was definitely going to be the most stressful part of the journey. He slid his metro card and went through the turnstile, the transit cop didn't even look at him, he was just kid in a school uniform, one of thousands.

He moved down the stairs towards the platform and took a deep breath as he waited for the train. The platform wasn't as packed as it had been in the spring and that made Rome feel a lot better. He could feel his whole body shaking with nerves as the train neared the platform and it was kind of tough to breathe slowly, he was so nervous and couldn't shake it.

Once the doors opened, Rome moved to the right so the people exiting the train could get off, and carefully pushed his way onto the train. He managed to grab a seat with a good view of the map that lit up to signify each stop. This was perfect, even if his hearing crapped out, Rome could follow the subway stops. He wondered why he hadn't noticed this when he had gotten lost, but he forced himself to remember how scared he had been, how panicky, it was understandable how he would have had problems seeing something, even if it was right in front of his face.

Besides, he had been pretty naïve back then, now he kept an eye on everything around, he was cautious of his surroundings and those around him. If there was any positive that had come out of being kidnapped, it was the fact that thanks to being abducted, Rome had become much more vigilant.

Six stops, that was all he had to get through, and they felt like they took FOREVER. The train filled with people then emptied and filled again. Rome looked around cautiously, staying in his seat. He was easily the youngest on the train, the other riders were grownups, twenties, thirties, some in suits, some in doctor's scrubs, some in just jeans, dresses, things like that. No teenagers, at least none that Rome saw, no kids his age, and no one wearing a school uniform.

He began to wonder, as the train pulled from the third stop, if he should have changed at school. He had brought jeans and a sweatshirt to change into, but had just wanted to get away from his friends and even his sister at the point, he just didn't bother. Now he was seriously wondering if he should have taken the time to change. Did being in the uniform make him stand out more? Was he an easier target?

A guy in a jogging suit boarded the train at the third to last stop for Rome, he looked right at Rome and Rome felt his heart skip a beat as the jogger walked towards him. His body tensed up and he felt his wrists start burning, this guy was a dead ringer for Mr. Carlson. Rome tried to stay as calm as possible but in all reality he just wanted to run away, yell for help, anything to protect himself.

To his relief the jogger passed by him, heading for an open seat a few rows back. He pulled out his iPod, slipped his earbuds in, and began bopping his head to the music.

When Rome's stop finally lit up, Rome was up in a flash, pushing through the crowds towards the doors, trying to be the first one off. Apparently a lot of other commuters had the same idea because Rome was thrust into the herd of people as they piled off the subway. Rome moved to a quieter part of the platform and took a deep breath. He counted to ten and followed the throngs of people up the stairs towards the sunlight.

Once at the top of the subway he moved to the side and looked at his map, he was exactly where he was supposed to be, he had did it, he had survived a subway ride alone to a new location. He couldn't wait to tell his dad, he was going to be so proud…

Rome stopped mid-thought, his conscience reminding him that his dad wasn't exactly going to be proud, he would be sick with worry if he found out about this and Rome hated to think about that, about putting his dad in that kind of position.

Sighing, Rome shoved his map back into his pocket and headed down the street, he knew where he was going now, he was almost there, he'd worry about his dad later, but that guilty feeling was deep in his stomach and was eating away at him…and despite how proud and excited Rome had felt only moments before, now he just felt sick to his stomach as he walked down the street towards the medical examiner's office.

Xxx

Rome really wasn't sure if he'd even be allowed in the office. So when he went to the front desk, he was actually glad he had kept his uniform, he kind of hoped it gave him an edge that he wouldn't otherwise have. Even so, it was hard to have an edge when you have to stand on your tip-toes to see over the counter.

The woman at the counter looked at him like she couldn't believe what she was seeing, and he kind of understood that, they probably didn't get a lot of kids coming into the office like this, this was the morgue after all.

"Er, can I help you?" she asked carefully

"I'm here to see Dr. Parish?"

The woman blinked

"Is she expecting you?"

Rome tried not to laugh at that, he was really trying to maintain a level of maturity with this, but he figured the only ones Dr. Parish would expect aside from Detective Beckett and other cops, would be dead bodies.

"No, she's not, but she is a friend of my dad, he's a volunteer with the 12th precinct, and she told me to come visit anytime."

"Right," the woman replied "let me page her, wait right here." She walked over to a phone and hit a series of buttons. She was whispering so it was tough for Rome to hear what she was saying, but he could see her lips pretty good and got her side of the conversation from that. "yes, Dr. Parish? There's a kid here to see you. Yes, no I'd say about ten, maybe nine, he says you're a friend of his dad. Oh, let me ask him." The woman paused her conversation with Dr. Parish and turned back to Rome, "honey, what's your name?"

"Rome," he answered

"Rome," the woman said into the phone and then she jumped back, holding the receiver away from her ear and Rome had to wince, he could only imagine Dr. Parish's reaction…he didn't have to wait long to experience it for himself because not two minutes after the woman hung up the phone, Lanie came rushing up to the lobby, staring dumbfounded by Rome's presence.

"R-Rome?" she stuttered "honey what are you doing here?" she looked around "sweetie where's your dad?"

Rome winced and shrugged at the same time. Lanie sighed, she took a clipboard from the woman behind the desk, filled it out, grabbed a visitor badge from off the desk and put it on Rome's vest. She led Rome down to her office, away from the autopsy room, something she didn't want Rome to be exposed to. She got him a soda from the vending machine and once he had a chance to drink some of, her eyes narrowed as she waited for an explanation.

It took a few minutes of silence before Rome finally sighed and told Lanie everything. He explained why he had come to her in the first place, he told her about his discussions with Dr. Goldberg, his fight with his friends and even his ever growing fear that him and his dad were growing apart. Lanie was patient and just let Rome vent, she was also glad she had brushed up on her sign language since first meeting the youngest Castle because clearly it made Rome more comfortable to sign.

When he finally paused, Lanie waited a few seconds just to make sure he was done, before she smiled at him and put a hand on his arm.

"Sounds like you've had it pretty rough the last few weeks huh little one?" Rome nodded "and your dad has no idea that you're here?"

"He's with Detective Beckett I think, he thinks I'm at a friend's apartment…the same friend who…"

"You're fighting with?" Lanie guessed

"Well, more like I'm giving them the silent treatment now, they've been trying to talk to me since last night." Rome admitted "but I'm not ready to forgive them for getting mad at me and…I guess I'm not ready to admit that I was in the wrong too."

"Rome, honey I really think this all boils down to the fact that you need to talk to your dad. Talking to me isn't going to do anything other than give you the opportunity to vent." Rome looked down at his sneakers and Lanie chuckled "let me guess, I'm not the first person who has told you that?" Rome shook his head "well baby, what's stopping you?"

"I-I- I don't know," he said "every time I go to talk to him, something stops me, like my mind tells me to stop. I keep telling myself I just don't want to worry dad any more than he already is. He's gotten wicked overprotective of me and Alexis, but especially me 'cause of this whole thing and I hate seeing him like that. Like I was really surprised he didn't question me going to Todd's today…didn't have me text him when I got there or check-in." Rome paused and played with his hat that was sitting on the table in front of him. "It's how come it was easy to just come here instead, Alexis is the only one who knows I didn't go to Todd's and I promised her I'd be home before dad so he wouldn't worry." He paused again "that brings up another problem."

"What's that?" Lanie asked

"My sister, I know she's not happy with the position I've got her in, I made her promise not to tell dad what's going on, made her promise to cover for me today, but I wouldn't tell her where I was going 'cause I knew she'd not only stop me from coming, but worse she'd call dad. But I feel bad I'm doing this to her."

Lanie reached forward and hugged Rome's shoulders

"I know you don't believe it, especially right now Rome, but you really are a good kid, and you're a good brother and a good son. It's hard for anyone to understand what you went through and I know your dad and your sister are just trying to work through it the best they can, just like you are. It's just going to take time."

Rome nodded

"A lot of time," he mumbled Lanie hugged him again and headed to the phone "you gotta call, my dad, huh?"

"I have to Rome, he needs to know you're at least safe and with me."

"He's going to be so mad,"

"Probably, but honey he'll be glad you're okay, and I'm sure once you both have had a chance to talk, he'll understand your reasoning."

"I don't even understand my reasoning," Rome replied "how's he?" he added under his breath. Lanie didn't hear that last part as she dialed Castle's number. She was surprised when it went straight to voicemail, so she tried Beckett, same thing. She was just about to try Ryan and Espo, when she heard a familiar voice in the hallway…talk about perfect timing.

"Rome, honey I have to check on something, can you promise me you'll stay right here?"

Rome nodded

"I promise," he replied, taking a slow sip of soda

Lanie walked into the autopsy room to find Espo and Ryan standing there, well Espo was standing there, Ryan was poking at some of her equipment.

"Just the boys I wanted to see," Lanie called "Ryan you touch anymore of my tools and I will make you clean up after my autopsies for the next year."

Quickly Ryan pulled his hand back

"Hey Chica," Espo said smoothly "miss me that much?"

"You no," Lanie replied shortly, giving him a smile.

"Beckett sent us down, seems Castle had an idea about finding our tattooed Russian at some poker game tonight, just hoping to get some info on the bruises on the vic." Ryan explained

"I can give you that, and much more"

"That's all we need," Ryan said, poking at a glass jar, Lanie rolled her eyes, he was like a kid in a museum with signs all over the place that say 'do not touch'.

"Ryan," she said and he pulled his hand back

"Oh, sorry,"

"Look I'm glad you boys came down here, have you heard from Beckett or Castle?"

"No they were looking into some poker game. One of Castle's writer buddies told him about this Russian mob run poker game in Chinatown, they're staking the place out from the outside before we check it out tonight. Castle's all giddy 'cause it's his first solo undercover op."

"Castle is the reason I need you guys," Lanie replied, she led them to a window that looked into the office

"Rome!?" Espo and Ryan exclaimed in unison "what the hell is he doing down here?"

"Came for a visit apparently." Lanie explained "look that boy is going through a tough time right now, he's desperate to talk to someone and thought I might be the one he needs, but the one he needs to talk to is his father."

"Castle usually goes back to the precinct with Beckett, he should be there when we get there."

"Good, I want you to take Rome with you to the 12th and stay with him okay, till his dad comes. Clearly they need an intervention and it needs to happen."

"Lanie, we're not Dr. Phil here," Ryan explained carefully and Lanie shot a dagger look at him

"Castle is your friend, that boy in there is like family to all of us. You both know how close Castle is to his kids, what him and Rome are going through right now needs to end and they clearly can't do it on their own. For Rome to come all the way up here from school just to talk to someone? If that's not a cry for help I don't know what is."

"All right, we'll do our best," Espo replied and Lanie nodded at him, before disappearing back into the office.

Rome looked up at her and smiled

"Is that disappearing body still here?" he asked and she looked at him curiously "my dad told me and Lex about it, the one the body snatchers took and then left again?"

Lanie nodded, chuckling a little

"Yes, once the investigation is over, I'll be given okay to release the body to his family."

"Were you scared?" Rome asked, "dad said he wasn't scared, then he jokingly said he was, were you?"

Lanie nodded

"Very scared, it's something you don't expect, and something you're definitely not trained for as a medical examiner." Rome nodded "but it worked out,"

"I'm glad you guys were okay," Rome replied

"Thank you Rome," Lanie said, she paused "honey Ryan and Esposito are here, they swung in to get some things for the case. I want you to go back to the 12th with them and wait for your dad okay." Rome nodded and picked up his backpack slowly "as much as I love having you here, the morgue is no place to be hanging out."

"Okay," he replied

Lanie smiled, she knelt down and held Rome's shoulders tight

"Honey, please talk to your dad okay, for me?" Rome shrugged "please. You can't let things like this fester. It starts out small, but before you know it sweetie you and your dad have grown completely apart, and none of us want to see that. It won't be easy, you know that, but please, take the first step."

Rome took a deep breath

"I'll try," he said softly and Lanie leaned forward to hug him tight

"Let me know how things go okay? And when I said come visit me anytime, I meant it, just next time give me a heads up okay sweetie?" Lanie asked and Rome nodded.

Espo and Ryan greeted Rome with fist bumps and hair mussing as they headed towards the car. Neither detective questioned Rome being at the medical examiner office. When they reached the car, the three of them exchanged a look, both Detectives felt weird having Rome ride in the back of a police car, and were silently arguing with one another on who would drive and who would take the backseat.

Rome grinned at his dad's friends and solved it for them, he climbed in the backseat. His hearing was still doing pretty good, so he was able to talk to the detectives, joke around with them. They asked how he was doing and how school was going. Rome felt comfortable with the detectives, he couldn't explain it, but he felt more at ease talking to Dr. Parish and the detectives than his own family, more comfortable than even his therapist.

When they reached the precinct, Ryan and Espo got Rome a visitor badge and brought him up to the bullpen. Of course neither detective was expecting Beckett to be sitting at her desk when they walked in, both stopped short, Espo put his hand on Rome's shoulder pulling him to a stop.

Beckett looked up as she said

"Did you guys swing by Lanie's like I ask-" she stopped short and stared "um, okay, where did you guys find Rome?"

"Hi Detective Beckett," Rome called waving sheepishly as Ryan and Espo joined him.

"Right, hi Rome." She looked at Ryan and Espo for an explanation, they shrugged behind Rome and pointed at him. "Must be genetic," Beckett muttered chuckling a little. "Come on Rome, how about you hang out at my desk," Rome started to walk towards Beckett's desk, but stopped short when she said, "and we'll give your dad a call."

Rome's face went pale for a second

"Wait…he's not here?"

Beckett shook her head

"No, I dropped him off at the loft on my way back here." Rome's shoulders fell "you're supposed to be home aren't you?" he shook his head "where are you supposed to be?"

"At a friend's house, but I promised Alexis I'd be home before dad…" Rome paused "and I'm not and now they're both going to be worried and mad at me,"

Beckett smiled sympathetically,

"Ryan grab Rome a hot cocoa will you," she paused "let me call him and let him know where you are." Rome made a face "I have to Rome. It will be okay."

Rome crossed his arms and leaned on Beckett's desk, resting his head on his arms, watching as she called his dad. Rome had thought he was doing the right thing in the beginning of the day, but knowing how worried and mad his dad was about to be, it didn't feel right anymore, he knew it wasn't right and just had to face the consequences.


	6. Chapter 6

When his phone started ringing Castle was a little surprised, mainly because it wasn't his cell that was going off, it was the house phone, so the lights were flickering, acting as the usual alarm for Rome that the phone was going off.

He was already a little suspicious of what was going on, to begin with, Alexis had seemed surprised and even horrified that he was home 'early' as she stated. When he asked her why, was she expecting to be alone for the afternoon, Alexis had giggled with force and told him no, she had just figured he would be late since he was working a case with Beckett. However, her nose twitched in the process, always a sign that she was fibbing, not to mention she was the worst liar he had ever seen, her poker face was virtually none existent.

So, needless to say, Castle was already on edge, figuratively. What he hadn't expected was the caller ID to reveal Beckett and to hear Beckett on the other end telling him not to panic, but that Rome was with her at the 12th.

Castle didn't even have time to question it, he grabbed his jacket, phone, and keys and was out of the loft in seconds. It was only in the cab heading towards the 12th, did Castle realize his phone was off.

Once he turned it back on, he was stunned by the amount of missed calls, two from Lanie, three from Beckett, one from Espo, one from Ryan, two from Alexis. Wondering why Lanie would be calling, Castle decided to go with the voicemail from that one first,

'Castle, it's Lanie, no need to panic, Rome was here, he apparently decided to come for a visit, Esposito and Ryan swung by to pick some things up for the case and they took him to the 12th, Beckett has probably called you by now. Honey, it's not really any of my business, but you and Rome really need to talk, he's hurting and he needs you to talk to him."

Castle had to play the message several times before he comprehended what Lanie had said and it just gave him more cause to be upset and even angry with Rome. Going to the 12th was one thing, he wasn't happy about that of course, but to find out Rome had gone all the way to the Medical Examiner's office up on 1st Ave was much bigger, much more serious.

Why had Rome gone to see Lanie? He knew the technical reason, of course, Beckett had told Castle that Lanie had taken ASL in college and Castle had witnessed it for himself when Lanie and the others came to check on Rome at the hospital. But there had to be more to it and Castle wasn't really sure he wanted to find out.

He looked out the window and sighed, neither of his kids had EVER lied to him like this, never been so careless like this. This wasn't the same as Rome getting on the subway by accident and making it to Central Park.

This was deliberate and Rome of all people should know how dangerous his action was…

Castle paused and winced at his own thoughts, Rome would know of course, there wasn't anyone in the family who would know better than Rome the dangers in the city, knowing that people you thought you could trust were the ones who would betray you.

Could he really stay mad at Rome for his action? He knew that Rome was trying to work through things and Castle just assumed that he needed his space to work everything out and that Rome would come to him when he was ready. Castle hadn't wanted to push Rome, but maybe he should have, maybe he should've been more forceful or even more open.

Rome and Alexis had grown up on the knowledge that whatever was on their mind, their dad was there to listen, no matter what. But for whatever reason, only Rome knew, he had instead turned to other people to talk to, he had gone all the way uptown to talk to Lanie, he poured his heart out to Dr. Goldberg, but couldn't talk to his own father.

Castle felt pretty hurt about that, but he also wondered if maybe he had made a mistake at some point. Had he mishandled the aftermath of Rome's kidnapping? He had done everything suggested by the Doctors, he made sure that Rome had a strong support system and made sure there was plenty of people in his life to talk to.

Castle sighed, he hated to think that their relationship was broken, Sebastian Martin had taken so much from them already by holding Rome captive for a week, how much longer would his actions keep punishing the family…keep punishing Castle and Rome.

Castle reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He had transferred most of the pictures of the kids from his wallet to his phone and kept the actual photos at home, but there were two that he couldn't remove.

One was of Alexis at age six after she lost her first baby tooth, a milestone moment in the family because it was also Castle's first time as a father dealing with a lost tooth.

He had expected it to be like the movies, since he had a vague memory of his own experience, he figured it be clean, Alexis' tooth would come out she'd be happy as a clam, dancing around, showing off the tooth, she'd have a gap in her smile for a while, it would be beyond adorable. Castle thought he was prepared for all of that, he just hadn't been prepared for the blood, the large amount of it.

Alexis was of course, even at that age very observant. She saw how panicked her father was and followed in suit, crying hysterically about her teeth all falling out.

Rome who was nearly two at the time saw his sister having a meltdown, saw his father panicking and decided to join the lot by breaking down in tears, even though he really didn't understand why he was crying.

By the time Castle managed to call his mother, both kids were screaming and crying and Castle had a hard time relaying the problem to his mother who could hear the hysterics of her grandchildren perfectly well over the phone.

The picture was taken after the fact, of course, once Martha got Castle calmed down, who in turn got both kids calmed down. It had been a comedy act, at least from Martha's perspective, as well as Meredith when she heard the story after Alexis called mommy to tell her about the tooth. But that picture brought back that memory and looking back at it, Castle knew he could laugh at it with ease.

The other picture that was sacred in the wallet was of Rome, on his way to his first day at school. Castle had taken the picture, among many others that day, in front of Rome's new classroom. Rome had looked so small, his Ice Age backpack was almost as big as him and he had insisted on bringing Balto, so the stuffed wolf was sticking out of the backpack, looking over his shoulder.

Castle could remember Rome's first day of school, how excited Rome was and how nervous he was, so nervous in fact that Castle didn't go home after he got Rome settled in class, he waited at the coffee shop around the corner, staring at his cell phone waiting for it to ring.

When pick up time got closer, Castle stayed across the street, watching Rome on the playground, watching as he made two new friends right off the bat, assuring Castle that Rome was ready for school and that he was going to be fine…it was just getting to that point that worried Castle.

Xxx

Flashback

September 2002, 7:30 AM

When Castle went into Rome's room to wake the three-year-old up, he wasn't surprised to see Rome sitting on the floor of his room pulling on his new sneakers, they were on the wrong feet and his sweater vest was on backward and he was still in his pajama pants but Castle had to laugh and be proud that Rome was trying to get ready for school all by himself and he had to wonder how long Rome had been awake getting ready.

Castle was still a little nervous about Rome starting school this young. It was entirely his fault, Marlowe prep had only recently shifted to have its levels include preschool through twelfth as opposed to just middle and high school, but they also had a half-day playgroup to introduce kids to each other and get ready for school. It was only a two hour a day program for two and three-year-olds or four-year-olds who weren't quite ready for preschool but had parents who wanted them to get the experience.

So when Castle was filling out the form for what he thought was the half-day program he had accidentally downloaded and filled out the preschool form. It wasn't uncommon for a three-year-old to be in preschool, especially a three year old that would turn four in February, but Rome's new teacher did inform Castle that Rome would be the youngest in the class, most of the other kids would be turning five during the school year, so Rome would be the youngest in the class, by almost a full year.

That fact alone made Castle nervous and he felt pretty guilty about sending Rome to school so early, he wanted more time with Rome, he loved having his son home day with him.

Rome was a great distraction when he was writing, and even when he did set out to write, Rome would play in his office quietly or draw. Castle could even bounce ideas off of Rome and get a pretty good answer from the three-year-old. It had been suggested many times that Derrick Storm run into the Scooby-Doo gang and work a case with them, saying that Derrick Storm needed a puppy sidekick like Scrappy-Doo.

But there was no denying how excited Rome was to start school when he first learned he was going to preschool, he ran around the loft singing a "I'm going to cool I'm going to cool" song.

So Castle couldn't turn around and tell Rome that he had to wait a year, it was settled, as much as Castle regretted it, Rome was going to preschool.

So with the big day finally upon them, Castle walked into Rome's room chuckling at his three-year-old.

"Romey," he said "kiddo do you want some help getting dressed? I know you tried Doc, but I think you may have your shoes on the wrong feet."

Rome didn't answer he didn't even acknowledge his father. He was busy singing the Sesame Street theme song and rocking his head back and forth to music only he could hear.

"Sunny days tashing the couds a way...come with me where the air is cean, can you tell me how to get how to get how to get to teasme treet!"

On normal circumstances Castle would be laughing at Rome's song, Rome had a great vocabulary for a three-year-old, but for some reason he had a hard time with certain words, he tended to get tongue-tied easily on them, especially words with prominent r's, s's, and l's, and he would drop letters in certain words and not in others, and got words jumbled easily, it was only a recent development too, because when Rome first started talking he was pretty easy to understand considering.

It was one of the many growing concerns Castle had about Rome, even though he hated to admit it, it was pretty damn adorable.

"Hey Doc come on," Castle called a little louder this time but still Rome didn't look his way "Roman?"

Not even thinking about it, Castle clapped his hands loudly, Rome stopped singing and scooted on his butt to turn around and face his dad, he grinned wide and jumped up, all excited as if he had just realized his dad was in the room.

"Mowning daddy!" he exclaimed, leaping into his father's arms

"Morning kiddo," Castle replied hugging Rome tight, before he put Rome down and knelt down so he was eye level with the small three-year-old, "Romey, did you hear daddy calling your name?"

"when daddy?" Rome asked

"just now, when you were singing Sesame Street,"

Rome scrunched up his face as he thought this over hard and Castle couldn't help smiling at that, he loved when Rome did this, he took things so serious it was pretty adorable.

"No daddy, I was tinging and then I heard you cap, like this," Rome demonstrated the clapping noise "see?"

"Right Romey, but daddy called your name a couple of times before I clapped, you didn't hear me?"

"Daddy is silly" Rome concluded "I like daddy's jokes! You did not cap, your sus..sop…you hafta say gotcha, you all ways say so!"

Castle started to shake his head to explain to Rome that he wasn't making a joke that he had been trying to get Rome's attention. But he couldn't, as smart as he knew Rome was, he was also three years old and wouldn't really understand.

"Right Romey daddy was just kidding"

"Look at me daddy I got dessed all by myself like a big boy!"

"Yes you did Doc, that was a great attempt,"

"A temp?" Rome repeated tilting his head a little trying to sound out this new word "daddy what's a temp?" He asked, "is that like when Lexis or me is sick and you put the tomonitor in our ears and say 'kiddo you have a temp!' like that?" Rome added trying to sound like Castle. And Castle couldn't help his laughter

"You've gotten so smart kiddo, I'm really in trouble aren't I?" Rome looked over his dad's shoulders as something shiny caught his attention "Roman?"

Nothing from Rome, no acknowledgment nothing, Castle winced and found himself wondering if this was going to become a regular occurrence if it was temporary, something Rome would outgrow, or if it was a preview for something bigger, something more serious.

Alexis had never done this as a toddler but maybe Rome was more like his father than they thought

Finally, Castle snapped his fingers near Rome's ears, it took two snaps before Rome looked at his father smiling wide

"Hi, daddy!" He exclaimed.

Castle felt his stomach drop a bit there was no way this was normal, something was definitely wrong with Rome and Castle was praying he was wrong, that he was just imagining things.

"Howdy partner,"

"Can we go to cool now?"

Castle hugged him

"Yes Doc, we can go to school now, you excited?"

"YES!" Rome exclaimed "yes, yes, yes!"

"Are you sure?" Castle asked and Rome kissed his dad's cheek

"Weally, weally sure daddy!"

"Well, all right then, let me help you just a little bit with getting ready, you can't go to school in your PJs Doc."

"I couldn't do the bucker daddy,"

"You mean the button?" Castle asked, helping Rome take off his sneakers.

"Yes daddy," Rome said picking up his discarded pants. Castle had been a little hesitant about the uniform thing, Alexis didn't mind hers, in fact, she loved it. But Rome was just getting to the point where he wanted to pick out his own clothes and so how grown up he was. He had been so excited about school in the first place he hadn't even noticed the outfit that the kids were expected to wear.

Castle had helped him lay out his uniform the previous night, so everything would be set to go in the morning. It had taken a little time to explain to Rome that he couldn't wear his Goofy tee-shirt gram had gotten him over the summer. He loved the sweater vest instantly but hadn't been too crazy about the corduroy pants, even going so far as to stick his tongue out at them.

But Castle knew part of the reason that Rome wanted nothing to do with them was because of the button, or bucker as Rome called it, to make it easier for the kids, the button on the pants snapped into place, he had mastered regular buttons, that just slipped into place, but had trouble getting his little fingers to work the snapping right. He had the same problem with a pair of overalls Meredith had bought him.

So, Castle helped Rome take off his pajama pants and Rome slowly pulled on the corduroy pants. Castle liked to let the kids be independent, so he let Rome attempt to snap the button a few times before Rome stomped his foot in frustration,

"Easy kiddo, it's okay, it's just a button." Castle soothed

"I torry daddy," Rome replied, letting his dad clip the button. He looked up at Castle thoughtfully "daddy can I ask you a cu…qu…" he frowned as he struggled to say the word, leaving his father to guess, though it wasn't really a difficult guess

"A question?" he asked and Rome nodded quickly

"Yes daddy, that,"

"Rome, you know you can ask me anything you want and if I can answer it I will and if I can't I'll find out the answer."

"Are you going to miss me when I'm at cool?"

"Am I going to miss you while you're at school?" Castle repeated, a little taken back by the question

"Uh-huh,"

"Romey, of course, I'm going to miss you, that's a sill question Doc." Castle paused "are you going to miss me?"

"All day daddy!" Rome exclaimed "I will miss you all day,"

Castle chuckled at that as he hugged Rome tight

"But don't miss me so much that you aren't having a good time at school got it?" Rome nodded "the first couple of days are going to be scary Rome, I know you're excited about this new adventure, but when I drop you off you might feel a little scared and a little homesick."

"What's homesick daddy?"

"It's where you just want to come home,"

"If I get homesick do I have to go see Dr. Fieldman? Is he going to give me a tot?" Castle chuckled again

"You mean shot kiddo?"

"Ouchie," Rome replied nodding

"No, there's no shot and you won't have to go see Dr. Fieldman, you just tell Mrs. Jackson and if you're really unhappy Romey, she'll call me and I'll come to get you deal?"

"Deal daddy,"

Castle smiled at his son

"Remember what I said Doc? A promise or a deal isn't real until?"

"You shake or pinky swear,"

"Bingo Rome, you really are getting to be such a big boy." Castle paused holding up his pinky and Rome tried to wrap his tiny finger around his father's much larger one. "Kiddo, try to stop getting so grown up on me? Stay as little as long as possible okay?"

"Okay daddy," Rome said, "I will tie…"

Xxx

That day seemed so long ago and at the same time like it was just yesterday. How in the world did Rome go from being his sweet little mini-me who told him everything to a pint-size teenager, three years too early?

And as much as Castle wanted to blame it all on Martin, blame Rome's kidnapping, he knew it had been going on before that. This had started the previous year and had only gotten worse following the abduction.

Castle was feeling all sorts of emotions, from anger to relief, to frustration. He wanted to be mad at Rome, wanted to explode and lay into his son for pulling such a dangerous not to mention stupid move.

Rome knew better than to go anywhere but home or where he had promised he'd be going after school, especially by himself. He had walked and taken the subway all the way from Marlowe Prep to the Medical Examiner's office by himself without telling anyone where he was going. He had dragged his sister into lying and deceiving.

But the minute Castle walked into the precinct and into the bullpen he felt a different wave of emotions. The previous year, when Rome had gotten lost on his way home from school and ended up with Beckett, he had just looked scared when Castle came to pick him up, scared and maybe a little at ease being with Beckett. He had been sitting next to her desk, doing his homework as she did paperwork.

This time was different, Rome wasn't working on homework, he wasn't even sketching, he was sitting there next to Beckett's desk, looking positively miserable and ashamed.

Castle couldn't stay mad at him, at least not without hearing the whole story. This was his son, his mini-me, he had to get to the bottom of all this, there would be no skating around it or brushing it off, father and son would not be leaving the precinct until Castle knew what exactly was going on with Rome.

Castle saw Rome stiffen a little as if he could sense his father walking up behind him. Slowly he turned in his seat and winced, even more, when he spotted his father. He glanced back at Beckett who looked up from her paperwork, she smiled gently at Castle.

She could see the worry lines all over his face and felt for the man in front of her who she was so used to acting the part of the child. It was rare she got to see him as the parent and in reality, the last time she had seen this side of Castle was standing outside the factory, the team preparing to raid it to rescue Rome.

"Thanks for calling me," Castle said carefully, looking at Rome for a moment, trying to keep his voice calm and level, but it wasn't easy.

"It's no problem," Beckett replied "Castle," she said softer hoping Rome wouldn't hear her, but Castle didn't give her a chance.

"Roman, what the hell were you thinking?" Castle hissed, signing angrily as he went. Rome winced again, he had never seen his father this angry, he also knew he deserved everything that was coming "do you know how stupid this was? How dangerous?"

Slowly Rome nodded

"I…I know it…" he started to say, but stopped "dad I'm sorry," he whispered "I really am,"

Beckett stepped in between the pair gently.

"Castle, there's no one using the break room, why don't you and Rome go in there to talk, I'll make sure no one bothers you guys."

Castle nodded his thanks, accepting Beckett's reassuring smile as he gestured for Rome to come. He had seen that look of defeat, the look of hopelessness on Rome only once before and he swore after finding Rome in that dog crate, put there by his kidnapper, Castle had made a silent promise to his son that he would never have to experience hopelessness in any capacity ever again.

But that was exactly the look on Rome's face as he stood in the precinct bullpen. He looked defeated and tired, not the same kid who only just that morning was making jokes, teasing his sister, and was anxious to get to school.

There was a few seconds of pure silence, Rome staring down at his sneakers and Castle rocking back and forth uncomfortably, unsure how they had reached such a low point in their normally close relationship.

Rome somberly followed his dad into the break room. Inside his dad made himself a cup of coffee, as the machine whistled loud enough for Rome to actually hear it, he began wishing that his hearing aids would crap out, that way he didn't have to sit and hear the disappointment the anger in his father's voice. It was bad enough seeing his expression and seeing the look in his eyes. Rome didn't want to hear it in his voice too.

Rome had never disappointed his father this was the first time in his life that he saw that look on his father's face.

"Do... Do you want something Doc?" Castle asked and Rome felt a little lift of relief his dad may be mad and disappointed but not enough that he wouldn't call Rome by his nickname.

Rome knew he had been stupid, but at the time it felt like his best option. He hated to lie to his dad and he should've known that there was no way Lanie would let him go back home alone, especially the way he came to her, so in retrospect, his attempt to keep this whole thing from his dad was a failure from the get-go.

So why had he done it? He had no idea. Maybe he was just trying to prove to himself he couldn't be afraid anymore, he couldn't be afraid that walking down the street meant someone was waiting down every alley waiting to kidnap him. He has to remind himself that though he still had to be cautious, even though this was New York City one of the biggest cities in the world, it didn't mean he had to be afraid of his own home, his own city.

Maybe that was why he did it, but there had to be more to it. He was so deep in thought Rome didn't realize his dad was calling his name

"Wha-what? Sorry dad, I was thinking."

"Something new you're trying for the first time at least today?" Rome couldn't help the wince and Castle's face went sympathetic "sorry kiddo that was mean."

"But well deserved I guess," Rome replied. He paused "dad I'm so sorry, I didn't mean any of this, I know it was stupid and at the time it seemed like I had everything all worked out, all planned."

Castle rubbed his chin and sat down at the table across from Rome, he didn't say anything for a second before he looked at his son carefully.

"What exactly was your plan Doc?"

"It doesn't make any sense now, but I thought that maybe I could talk to Lanie and she'd have some advice,"

"Doc I'm coming off of a long and within recent moments somewhat stressful time day here, you've got to be clearer here. Advice with what?"

"Everything dad, I-I've wanted to talk to you but I've been so worried," Rome paused "worried about worrying you. You're different dad, ever since I came home you've been way more protective than usual, and…and I've seen the toll it's taking on you."

"The toll Doc?"

Rome paused and leaned forward, he pointed at his dad's eyes

"You've got worry lines near your eyes, they weren't there before. This whole thing is 'cause of what happened, and it's my fault. Dr. Goldberg said I just needed to talk to you and let you know how I was feeling and what was worrying me, but I was afraid telling you would stress you out even more. I don't like you being this over-worried dad, I miss my fun dad, I miss how things were before."

"Romey, things won't be exactly like they were before, we both know that, but that doesn't mean things won't be just as good as they were before." Castle paused "it's something parents don't ever want their kids to know kiddo, but parents aren't perfect, we make mistakes and sometimes we really screw up, not just parents Doc, all grown up."

Rome nodded he hoped his dad didn't really think that was some big secret. He loved his dad; to Rome, Richard Castle was superman, he was a superhero, but even superman wasn't perfect, even superman made mistakes.

"I know dad." Rome replied carefully and Castle gave him a weak smile,

"Gram spilled the beans didn't she?" Castle asked and Rome shrugged "mom?" Castle guessed "oh don't tell me it was Patterson?" That did it that got a smile out of Rome and Castle snapped his fingers "figures he would betray us like that." He paused "but serious note Doc, I honestly thought I was doing the right thing, I knew you needed time to work everything out on your own, but I should have stepped in long before this. I knew you weren't yourself and I failed you in that aspect and I am sorry."

"I'm sorry too dad, I thought I could handle it, I thought I could protect you. I thought if I put on a brave face and went around as if everything was normal it would eventually be that way for real."

"What changed Rome?"

This was where Rome was also worried about talking to his dad, he hated to admit when he was wrong and knew regarding his friends, he was in the wrong. They were trying to apologize to him and he was just brushing them off, he had been so sure they would hate him. That they wouldn't understand that he just assumed all these things without looking at the facts.

"Remember how yesterday I told you I got into a fight with Todd, Joey, and Gage?" Castle nodded "and how I said it was a stupid little fight and it blew over?"

Yes?" Castle asked slowly, he had figured there was more to the argument then Rome was letting on but he had no reason to doubt Rome, so he just let it go.

"Well, I kinda lied about the fight. It wasn't about getting hit with a ball. Todd cornered me during gym and demanded to know what was wrong. I told him nothing was wrong and he blew up. He got so mad at me and then gage got involved and Joey, they demanded to know where I was for that week, why I had scars on my wrist. All of it. I wouldn't tell them, I begged them to leave it alone, so they just got mad all over again and walked away. They wouldn't talk to me all day dad, they wouldn't even sit with me at lunch. They sat at a table that had just enough room for the three of them."

"Oh Doc I'm sorry, I wish you had told me kiddo." Rome looked down at his hands "there's more to it isn't there?" He nodded "go ahead,"

Rome took a doe breath before continuing

"I couldn't take it anymore, by homeroom I was done. So I walked into homeroom waited until the announcements came on and told them everything."

"Everything?" Castle asked and Rome nodded

"Everything, they were stunned didn't know what to say. But I didn't even give them a chance, as soon as they dismissed 6th grade, I bolted and made Alexis leave before they could come out. I couldn't face them, I wasn't ready. They've been texting and calling me since yesterday. Kevin even got involved, he passed a note all the way across the classroom to me."

"Did you read it?"

"Not right away, it made its way to Isiah, he tried to get me to take it, but I pretended my hearing aids weren't working…I took them out and told Mrs. Blackstone my hearing was gone for the day. I just pretended I couldn't hear Isiah calling my name. He was going to get us both in trouble 'cause he wouldn't quit, so I asked to be excused to the bathroom and when I came back the note was in my book waiting for me."

"What did it say?" Castle asked

"Just that they all wanted to talk." Rome paused "but I still wasn't ready, I'm still not ready, especially to apologize so I just kept ignoring them." He looked at his dad "is it wrong of me?"

"You have to be ready to talk to them kiddo, in all fairness Todd, Gage, and Joey pretty much forced your hand on that one, but if you really weren't ready to talk to them you would have just let it go and let them stay mad at you."

"I guess,"

"It's one of those things I mentioned Rome, where things won't be exactly as they were before, but we can try and get as close as possible." Castle paused "and as far the worrying thing. Regardless of what happened, it is my job to worry about you and your sister, not the other way around. I appreciate you looking out for me kid but let me worry about you, and you worry about trying to stay ten years old forever and not trying to age three years."

"Okay," Rome said softly

"Things will get better Rome, look at this, we just had a heart to heart conversation, something we haven't had in a long time right?"

"No, I guess we haven't,"

"Granted it shouldn't have taken you going on an adventure without me."

"Yeah," Rome started "really, really sorry about that." He paused "and just for the record Alexis had nothing to do with any of it. She knew I was still upset and knew about the fight, but I made her promise not to tell you yet, so please don't be mad at her."

"I'm just amazed you got your sister to agree to keep something like that."

"It wasn't easy, trust me." Rome paused "but I also owe her a big apology."

"Do you want to head home then?" Castle asked and Rome nodded "sounds good to me Doc."

Father and son headed out of the break room slowly, moving towards Beckett's desk so Rome could collect his stuff.

"um, so are you working tonight?" Rome asked, "I mean are you going to drop me off and come back here?"

Castle was about to reply to that one when Beckett looked up, she had obviously heard Rome's question, she looked right at Castle and nodded indiscreetly.

"Hey Castle I just spoke to Montgomery, he called in a favor at the Two-Nine to ask about the poker game your friend Cannell mentioned. Apparently there is a game that runs regularly in Chinatown, it runs every night. But Montgomery said he can't have a task van and surveillance equipment for us until tomorrow night, so looks like we're on for tomorrow, does that work for you?" Beckett finished giving Castle a smile that Rome missed as he knelt down to get his backpack.

Castle nodded

"Perfect," he replied, mouthing 'thank you' to Beckett, who nodded, mouthing 'no problem.'

"You're going to go, undercover dad?" Rome asked and Castle grinned and nodded

"Pretty cool huh?"

"Very cool." Rome said with a grin, he turned to Beckett "thanks for letting me hang out Detective," he said softly "and tell Espo and Ryan I said thank you too?"

"I will Rome,"

"And I'm sorry for being such a pain, it's not intentional I promise."

"Rome what I have learned since meeting your father and in turn, you and your sister is this. Big Castle equals pain, little Castles not even close."

Rome couldn't help his grin at that as his father groaned

"Oh I totally feel the love in this room, it's overwhelming," Castle replied, putting an arm around Rome's shoulders. "Come on Doc, let's go home."

Rome nodded at his dad, he wiggled out from under his dad's arms to hug Beckett around the waist, before returning to his dad, the pair walking out of the bullpen. She had just sat back at her desk when her phone rang, reveling Espo's number

"Hey, Espo what's up?"

"Not a whole lot Becks, just wanted to let you know the van and the equipment is all set to go, we picking up Castle at his place or did he come and get the kid?"

"He came and got Rome, they just left, but Espo, see if we can hold the van till tomorrow. I think Castle really needs to have this night with his kids."

Beckett could practically see Espo nodding on the other end of the line

"Figured as much, the two of them talk?"

"They did, hopefully, things will smooth over with them."

"Kid going all the way uptown to the medical examiner's office, that's desperation right there."

"Says the man who jumps at the chance to go pick up reports from there." Beckett replied laughing "see you when you get back." she finished hanging up the phone, she did hope that she was right and Castle and Rome were repairing their relationship, because she also knew that Espo was right, clearly they needed the one on one talk and it really did seem like it helped.


	7. Chapter 7

xxx

On the way home, Castle ordered a couple of pizzas from Authentic Nick's for the family to split. Their favorite pizza joint was actually Stefano's across the bridge, but neither one felt like going out that way, even if it was for a delicious pizza.

When they walked into the loft, Rome half expected Alexis to be waiting for them in the family room, worried. Even though Castle had called to let her know they were on their way home, Rome knew there was a good chance she'd be lying in wait. But she wasn't, she wasn't in the kitchen, the family room, or anywhere on the first floor.

Rome could faintly hear music coming from upstairs. He looked at his dad who was getting the plates and cups down for dinner.

"I'll go get Alexis," Rome called to his dad who nodded

When he got to the top of the stairs, Rome realized just how loud the music actually was. Alexis had her door shut and he could still hear it pretty well. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door, hard. He heard the music pause, then resume again. So Rome knocked again, harder this time.

The music paused again and the door opened a crack, revealing Alexis who did not look very happy to see him.

"Did you walk home or did dad go get you?" she asked, Rome usually had a hard time differentiating tones because of his hearing loss, but he understood that tone loud and clear. His sister was fuming.

"Dr. Parish called dad, but Detective Ryan and Detective Esposito were there and they gave me a ride to the 12th."

Alexis' eyes went wide, then narrowed quickly

"Dr. Parish?" she asked "the medical examiner? You went to see her!? That's all the way-"

"Up on First Ave, I know Lex."

"I hope you got what you wanted from it Rome."

"Sorta," he replied, missing the sarcasm in his sister's voice but he didn't miss the eye roll or the body language as Alexis crossed her arms and stood stiff. "I…I talked to dad," Rome added, Alexis was at this point pretending not to care, but Rome could see he had caught her interest since she had been pushing for her brother and their father to talk and Rome had been so reluctant to do it.

"Oh?" she said nonchalantly

Rome ignored that and kept going

"Yeah, we talked for a while, at the precinct, I don't know if it will be completely okay, but it's a start." Alexis went back to not saying anything, but he could see her expression was softening "anyway, I'm sorry I put you in the middle of all of it. I didn't mean to worry you. I was stupid and didn't think things all the way through. I mean I'm ten, we're supposed to be impulsive and not think things through." Rome paused, hoping for his sister to burst out laughing and agree with him, but instead she just nodded, expectantly "anyways…dad and I brought home pizza from Nick's, smells really good, we got two; one with basil and sausage and cheese." He paused "right, so that's downstairs if you want any,"

Alexis didn't reply, she just turned around and went back to her bed, she held up a remote and turned the music back on loud. Rome heard the whole thing loud and clear, the conversation was over.

Rome sighed and headed away from his sister, he could feel her watching him as he walked towards the stairs and rounded the corner. He paused a few seconds around the corner, waiting for his sister to come out and hug him and accept his apology and all would be good between them, but it didn't happen.

"Doc, I've got two slices of cheese pizza with your name on them and a large glass of dark chocolate milk," Castle called as Rome climbed onto the stool. "Where's your sister?"

"Up in her room,"

"Did you tell her we've got pizza?" Rome nodded "Oh, I know that face, she's mad at you huh?" Rome nodded again "really, really mad or just mad?"

"Dunno, hard to tell, I think she's really mad, not really, really mad."

"Well, you have to see it from her point of view Doc,"

"I do, I'm not mad that she's mad. I know I deserve it, I just don't like her being mad at me, she didn't even laugh when I made a stupid joke."

"Give her some time kiddo, she was worried about you today."

Rome looked towards the stairs again

"how long do you think she's going to stay mad at me?"

"Again Doc, give her some time here," Castle paused "doc, you have to think about things from her perspective. We all were worried about you while you were missing,"

"I know," Rome sighed, picking up a slice and taking a huge bite of it.

"Romey, your sister cried herself to sleep every night and she slept with Balto every night you were gone."

"Really?"

"Really, we were all trying to find something that would help us stay strong until you came home and that was what worked for your sister. So you taking off today, it probably brought your sister back to that feeling, especially since you wouldn't tell her where you were going."

"I knew if I told her she'd definitely stop me or…"

"Or call me?"

Rome nodded

"Yeah. I honestly didn't think I would worry her that much,"

"well, it did Doc. And kiddo, I'm not telling you this to try and make you feel bad or in this case worse about the whole thing, but I want to make sure you understand things from your sister's point of view. She'll come around Rome, she just needs time to cool off."

"Do we tell gram?" Rome asked "'cause I really don't think we should," Castle thought that over "please dad?"

"For now I won't say a word, but I think you should probably tell her at some point." Rome took a bite of pizza and was quiet for a second "something else on your mind Rome?"

"Well, it's something we haven't talked about at all,"

"And that is?"

"Aren't you going to punish me?"

Castle chuckled

"You really are turning into your sister,"

"It's only fair dad, I screwed up and as much as I hate to admit it, I shouldn't get off scot-free, I worried you, Alexis, Dr. Parish, Detective Beckett, it wasn't fair to you guys, that alone should come with some sort of…" Rome winced "punishment."

Castle sighed, he knew Rome had a point, more than a point, Rome had done something pretty reckless and stupid and punishment was warranted here. But his kids rarely did things that warranted punishment, Alexis was known for dishing out her own groundings in the few times she did something worth being punished for, incidents Castle could count on one hand, Rome on the other hand tended to avoid doing so.

So Castle knew this was proof of how guilty Rome felt if he was willing to remind his dad that he needed to face some sort of consequences for his actions. In Castle's mind, especially in his attempt to shield his kids he hated to punish Rome at all, Rome's obvious guilt for the worry he had caused, and how bad he felt that his sister was angry with him, was pretty good punishment.

"What do you think would be an appropriate punishment for this Doc?" Rome shrugged "nothing comes to mind?"

"Dunno," Rome said softly, he thought it over for a second "maybe, I lose my metro card for two weeks, have to come right home from school for two weeks," he paused and bit his lip "and I think an hour early to bed for a week?" he guessed, slowly looking up at his dad for confirmation if that was good enough, he was surprised to see a disappointed look on his dad's face

"Early to bed for a week?" he whined, "aw Doc come on who is going to watch Ghost Wrangler's and World's Scariest Places with me." Castle reached over and held onto Rome's sweatshirt sleeve "don't be overly harsh with the punishments kid,"

Rome grinned and started laughing.

"Come on dad," he said between laughs

"Come on nothing kid, Ghost Wrangler's is investigating the Waverly Hill sanatorium on Friday, Doc we've been dying to see that episode,"

"No pun intended dad?" Rome asked and Castle chuckled

"Oh no pun completely intended. Look how about Friday night we make an exception to the bed early thing and I'll agree to the rest of it,"

"Dad, you know we can just DVR it right?" Rome asked grinning

"It's not the same," Castle whined, "please kiddo?" Rome was laughing loudly now as his dad pleaded and tugged on his shirt like a little kid "just one time, please? If you don't watch it with me no one will, Alexis isn't into that stuff, I need my Dr. Watson there with me to enjoy the twists and turns of one of America's most haunted places. Do you remember when we watched Ghost Hunters go there? How spooky it was? That was a whole team of investigators, Jack Sinclair goes alone."

Rome thought that over and nodded, it had been a few years before, but it had definitely been one of the best episodes from Ghost Hunters and since Rome thought the team from TAPS were awesome to begin with, he had thought that particular episode was worthy of being watched multiple times, in spite of his sister's protest that it was giving her nightmares.

"Okay," Rome finally exclaimed, "just Friday though, and only 'cause it's the Waverly Hills episode."

Castle grinned and hugged Rome's shoulders

"I knew I could count on you kiddo,"

xxx

After dinner was cleaned up, Rome did the rest of his homework he hadn't completed in study hall and had definitely ignored while he was at the precinct. Once that was all done, he accepted the new temporary routine of an early bedtime.

He hugged his dad goodnight and headed upstairs with the promise from his dad that he'd be up in a little while to tuck Rome in.

Rome paused at the top of the stairs and moved towards his sister's door but stopped after two steps he knew Alexis was mad and had every right to be mad. He had been selfish by taking off and not telling her where he was going, he had worried her and that wasn't fair either this was his sister and he had hurt her. So Rome knew he deserved the silent treatment, it sucked but well deserved.

So Rome headed into his own room and left the door open a crack, hoping that maybe his sister would suddenly change her mind and come in to say goodnight and maybe, just maybe forgive him.

He got changed into his pajamas and went to his bed, he didn't get into it though, instead, Rome crawled under his bed to reach the box of paperwork he had stashed away. It was all things his dad had hung onto regarding his kidnapping. At first, Rome had been weirded out by that fact, but as he looked through the chapters his dad had to write, the drawings Rome had done, and notes tons and tons of handwritten notes his dad had kept about his abduction using the notes as extra clues to bring him home.

Rome knew this stuff was important and couldn't be just thrown away like it didn't exist. So he saved it, used it to write his own story, he wasn't a writer like his dad, but he could formulate this story pretty well, after all, this was his story.

Using his flashlight he flipped carefully through the plastic binder that contained the drawings. These weren't the originals, those were in storage at the 12th, these were just copies but looking at them Rome had mixed feelings, part of him knew that his artistic talent had helped get him rescued, but the other part of Rome knew that it was partly because of his talent M had kidnapped him in the first place. It was really a no-win situation.

He had just flipped to the very last drawing he had managed to do when he felt the floorboards on the stairs creaking. His dad was coming up to say good night.

Quickly Rome shut the binder closed, put it back in the box, and covered that box with a blanket before scrambling out from under his bed, just as his dad knocked on the door, pushing it open.

"You all set doc?" Castle asked looking at Rome confused

"Yeah dad," Rome replied standing up

"So I thought it was my job to check for monsters," Castle seemed a little hurt "has it happened kiddo? Are you finally too old for me to go searching for monsters under your bed?"

Rome shook his head quickly

"No way dad, I was just climbing in when I dropped my hearing aid and it rolled under the bed, I had to go rescue it." At first, Rome didn't think his dad would buy it, but Castle smiled and nodded

"Did you get it?"

Rome nodded and held up his hearing aid, which had been in the pocket of his pajama.

"But I thought I saw something under there so I got out real quick."

Castle chuckled he reached down and picked Rome up carefully, putting him on his top bunk carefully

"Do you want me to look?"

In normal instances, Rome would be all for that, but this time around he wasn't sure if he had covered the box well enough, would his dad actually see it and wonder what it was?

Usually, Rome had it pushed back far under his bed where it was so dark unless you were looking for it you wouldn't see it.

But Rome knew his dad would be even more suspicious if he didn't stick with this usual routine. So Rome nodded "Yes please dad," Rome replied and castle grinned, there was a whole process for this 'checking under the bed for monsters' it hasn't changed in Rome's entire life.

Castle dropped to his knees and stuck his head under the bed frame. Rome leaned over the railing to watch.

"If there are any monsters under this bed you have till the count of five to vacate these premises. If you insist on sticking around after the five seconds I will be forced to pull out my anti-monsterus eliminator. And believe me, you don't want to go through the trouble of cleaning that gunk out of your fur you'll be spending hundreds on the dry cleaning alone."

Rome bit back a laugh. The anti-monsterus eliminator was his dad's own creation. He had a patent-pending at least that was what he always told Rome and Alexis when they were little.

It smelled like lemonade because according to Castle, monsters hated the smell of lemonade due to its sweet and sour properties. Rome never questioned his dad on that and he had never seen a monster under his bed so the concoction worked.

Castle counted to five slowly holds his hand up so Rome could see the countdown himself.

"Any monsters dad?" Rome called and Castle looked up at him

"None that I can see kiddo, I think you're in the clear for tonight."

"Good,"

Castle stood up and leaned on the railing so he could see Rome better

"You're still stressing out about Alexis aren't you?" Castle asked and Rome nodded "Don't worry about your sister okay doc?"

"I'll try not to," Rome replied, "it's tough cause I do feel bad about it, and the fact that she's not talking to me this time just makes it even worse."

"I know kiddo, but let her sleep on it and you sleep on it and hopefully tomorrow things will smooth over,"

"Can you make emergency cheering up pancakes?"

"My special secret breakfast dish, which is used only in cases of extreme emergency situations?" Castle asked in shock and Rome nodded slowly "of course I will make those." Castle paused and smiled knowingly "now are these for you or for your sister?"

"Both?" Rome suggested, "I'll even get up early and help you make them, chocolate chips for me and blueberries for Alexis?"

"Early to bed and early to rise? Does this mean my minion is growing wise in his old age?"

Rome shrugged and yawned

"Dunno dad,"

"Well, I would appreciate the pancake making help tomorrow Doc. But I want you to get some rest right now, we'll see how things are tomorrow. If Alexis is still not talking to you, we'll figure it out okay, maybe stage a family intervention? But this is your sister we're talking about here, I can't see her staying mad at you for very long."

"Dad, do you remember when I turned Alexis' dollhouse into a fort for my play mobile pirates?"

Castle chuckled as he remembered that situation. When they were little most of the kids' toys tended to be scattered throughout the loft, neither Alexis nor Rome was excluded from that, she was just as guilty as he was.

Alexis had left her dollhouse, a beautiful wooden Victorian house that Castle had found while they were summering in the Hamptons, in the family room. Her dolls were comfortably in various rooms where Alexis had left them, one of her baby dolls was even 'sleeping' in the cradle in one of the bedrooms.

Four-year-old Rome who had received a large plastic pirate ship from play mobile for his birthday from Castle and Meredith was playing in the family room while his dad was working on a new chapter and Alexis was at school.

The preschool didn't have school for the day so he was home, enjoying the time back with his dad. Rome had been sailing the pirate ship all over the loft, including into his dad's office and around his desk, before they set sail for the family room and had come upon a unique opportunity.

Rome took the liberty of seizing control of the abandoned Victorian and turning it into a hideout for his pirates. The ship was left docked outside the front gate and Rome had built a makeshift fence going around the house and had even moved the ship's cannons into the upstairs bedrooms. His pirate figurines were in various rooms of the house, some standing guard and others just lazing about. He had even put the pirate flag on the roof.

Alexis threw a fit when she got home from school and found her dolls "locked" in the basement of the house and the entire house overrun by pirates.

Rome hadn't seen the problem and cried to his dad that Alexis wasn't sharing and Alexis had joined in the crying complaining that her dolls were expecting company shortly and the pirates had made a mess of her beautiful house.

Castle had found himself really trying not to laugh at the entire situation because he did find it pretty funny. Alexis then got very mad at Rome and stomped up to her room. She refused to talk to him for the rest of the night and even into the morning.

It had been the longest time the siblings had gone without speaking to one another, two whole days, and Rome was definitely afraid this time around would rival that.

"Oh she was pretty mad on that one Doc, but in all fairness, it was pretty cute how you had the cannons in the house and the pirate flag."

"It was left there for the taking, didn't have to fight to claim it. No bloodshed," Rome replied with a shrug and Castle chuckled "but seriously dad, do you think she'll stay mad at me like that? I mean for that long?"

"I don't think so kiddo, that was a little different and you guys were a lot younger then too. As I said, give it the night and we'll see how things look in the morning okay?"

Rome nodded

"I guess,"

"Come on kiddo, under the covers, I've checked for monsters so you're clear on that, get some rest okay?"

"Okay dad," Rome replied,

"Do you want the light off or on?"

"Off please, I want to see the stars,"

Castle smiled and ruffled Rome's hair as he snuggled down into his blankets, he turned over on his back and watched as his dad headed out of the room and shut off the light, leaving the door open just a crack so a small amount of light came in.

Instantly the glow-in-the-dark stars that covered his ceiling burst into life with the constellations and various stars. Castle had done it for both Rome and Alexis' rooms when they were little and they loved falling asleep under the stars.

Rome looked up, finding Pegasus and Draco and all the other constellations his dad had organized for him. In the weeks following his kidnapping Rome had a hard time sleeping with the lights out, at times even the nightlight wasn't enough, not to mention he was also sleeping on the bottom bunk because he kept falling out of the top one and Castle was afraid that he would seriously hurt himself.

The nightmares Rome was suffering from were too intense for him to really handle. He would get disorientated and forget where he was and in a desperate attempt to get away from the nightmare he would try and hide, which unfortunately resulted in him falling out of bed.

Castle had even gone as far to put the bumpers back on Rome's bed to try and keep him from falling out, something Rome hadn't needed on his bed since he was a toddler. But that was how bad it was. So Rome was extremely grateful to be able to sleep not only on the top bunk again with no need for bumpers but to be able to fall asleep watching the stars.

A few hours later, things were pretty quiet in the Castle loft, both Alexis and Rome were fast asleep, Martha had come in not long after Rome had gone to bed from her dinner date with an old theater friend, she had quickly headed off to bed herself, and Castle despite trying to get a few more chapters written, had also crashed after only a few hours of typing.

Everything was pretty calm until Alexis got up to go get a drink of water from the bathroom that she shared with Rome.

It was normal to hear little noises coming from her brother's room. He tended to sigh once in a while as he slept, it wasn't out of the ordinary, he'd been doing that since he was an infant and when they were younger, such as staying up to wait for Santa to come, Alexis would fall asleep using her brother as a pillow, comforted by the noises he made.

But Alexis had learned very quickly which noises were normal and which signified her brother was having a nightmare.

As she filled up her cup with water, Alexis began to hear soft whimpering coming from Rome's room. She had been very diligent about checking on him following his kidnapping, his constant nightmares worried her and even though their dad was pretty quick to rush upstairs to comfort Rome, Alexis was closer and able to get to him quicker and get him calmed down quicker, she could usually calm him down before his nightmares escalated into screams of terror and even though Rome refused to tell her what the nightmares were about, he was grateful for his sister's presence.

The fact that she was giving her brother the silent treatment for taking off on her and worrying her sick, faded away from her conscious as she pushed his door open, Rome was rolling back and forth on the bed, all his blankets were kicked away, and some were even on the floor.

Alexis flipped on the dimmer lights just to check on Rome. She could see the tears streaming down his face and even though it was hard to understand exactly what he was saying, Alexis was pretty sure she heard her name come up over and over.

One part of Rome's kidnapping that had been kept from Alexis had been the strongest of M's that he had used to control Rome, the promise that if Rome didn't do as he was told and didn't behave, M could easily snatch Alexis and bring her to the factory to join him, taking both of Castle's kids away.

It had been the main thing that had made Rome submit to his kidnapping and do exactly what M expected, he had no choice, he had to protect his sister.

Castle hated keeping things from his kids, but that particular part was one thing he did not even question keeping from Alexis. Everyone had enough on their minds regarding Rome's kidnapping, there was enough stress and hurt going around about the situation, without the added stress on Alexis if she was to know that Rome had tried to protect her by accepting what was happening and just gave up trying to escape.

Everyone else involved was aware of it and though Rome had made it perfectly clear this was one thing he would not share with his sister, everyone else agrees to it.

So Alexis was surprised to hear not only her name come up, but to hear Rome pleading for someone to 'leave my sister alone, leave Alexis alone, please just leave her alone.'

Confused, Alexis stood in the doorway for a few seconds, for the first time in a long time she wasn't sure what to do, how to react.

She didn't have to wait long however as Rome's cries became stronger and his movements became more violent, to the point where in a split second, before Alexis could react, Rome sat up quickly in bed, a confused and horrified look on his face as he made his way towards the ladder

"No…Lex. Leave her alone, leave her alone leave my sister alone!" he shouted and promptly fell from the top bunk down the floor with a loud sickening thud.

"ROME!" Alexis cried as she ran over to her brother "Rome are you okay, wake up, wake Rome please"

It took a few seconds, but slowly Rome opened his eyes, he looked around, trying to figure out what had just happened. Then he saw his sister and relief washed over his face, followed very quickly by more tears as the realization that he had just fallen out of the top bunk hit.

"Lex, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, ow…ow," he mumbled as she pulled him into her arms and cradled him close, rocking him like she used to do when they were younger.

"Shhh, she said softly, not even sure if he could hear her, but not caring at that moment.

"I tried Lex, I tried,"

"You tried what?" she asked, just as Rome's door burst open revealing a disheveled Castle.

"Rome are you-" he stopped short taking in the scene "Alexis? Are you guys okay? What happened?"

"He had a nightmare," Alexis explained "and fell out of bed,"

"Oh Doc," Castle sighed sitting on the floor next to his kids, "I thought we were past that at least."

Rome couldn't even answer his dad, he was crying too hard. The nightmare had shaken him up quite a bit and the fall had finished the deed.

"Dad he was saying my name over and over," Alexis whispered over Rome's head, he was still clinging to her tight.

Castle rubbed his chin wincing a little, he reached over and rubbed Rome's shoulder, slowly Rome looked up at his dad

"Kiddo, did you have a nightmare?" Rome nodded "was your sister in it?" again Rome nodded

"M was taking her away," Rome sniffed "I couldn't get to her, he was taking her away and no matter how fast I ran I couldn't get to her," he looked up at Alexis, his eyes filling with tears again "I'm sorry Lex, I tried, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," he hugged her tight.

Alexis looked at Castle, she was so confused and was looking at their father for an explanation, which Castle wasn't really ready to give.

Before Alexis could push, Martha came into the room having heard all the commotion.

"What is going on?" she asked gently moving towards her grandkids and son. "Rome?"

"Nightmare," Castle mouthed

"Oh Romey," Martha she sat down on Rome's computer chair

"I'm okay guys…really," Rome tried to reassure them, but clearly no one believed him on that.

Castle reached over and gently patted Rome's shoulders and Rome winced. Castle sighed and looked at Martha.

"That hurt kiddo?"

Rome shook his head quickly

"No dad…d-didn't hurt," Rome said quickly, Castle rolled his eyes

"Doc, I want you to sign that to me okay pal?"

Rome looked at his sister and grandmother, then slowly at his father. He winced as he raised his hands to try and sign, but couldn't get past the first part of the sign for 'no'

"Rome sweetie?" Martha said gently

"Can't do it can you pal?" Castle asked and Rome shook his head

"No…hurts too much," he whimpered. Castle looked at Martha who nodded

"I'll get the icepack," she said and headed out of the room.

"Come on Doc, let's check your shoulder," Castle stood up and scooped Rome up into his arms and carried him downstairs. Alexis following close behind.

Downstairs Castle put Rome on the countertop as Martha came over with the icepack, Alexis reached into the drawer and pulled out a towel to wrap the icepack in.

"Alexis, how did he land exactly?" Castle asked

"Right on his arm dad," Alexis replied and Rome winced. Gently Castle took Rome's hand lifted his arm slowly up, he didn't get very far as Rome cried out in pain, then quickly shut his mouth, trying to pretend he hadn't done anything.

"Ow,"

"Guess that answers that question," Castle sighed "Come on Doc, let's get your coat,"

"Coat?" Rome asked looking at his sister "why do I need my coat?" Rome twisted a little to look at the clock on the stove "it's three in the morning, can I just go back to bed?"

Castle chuckled

"Doc we need to get that arm checked out, I don't think it's broken, but it may be sprained kiddo. Sorry but we've got to go to the hospital."

Rome rubbed his eyes with his good arm and sniffed. Castle went into his office to get dressed quickly.

Alexis walked over to the closet and got her coat and Rome's out and brought them back over to her brother.

"Rome?" she said softly signing as she went, he sniffed again and looked at her. "I'm sorry I gave you the silent treatment,"

"I deserved it," he replied "I did something stupid and I worried you. I should be the one apologizing."

Martha helped Rome put his jacket over his shoulder, and pulled his sneakers on, before she looked at her grandkids, clearly confused.

"I'm sure there is a detailed story behind this exchange," Martha started pulling Rome's knitted hat on him. "Which I will expect to hear at a later time,"

"Gram," Rome said grinning "it's still September, I don't think I need the winter hat,"

"Can't be too careful," she replied

"Rome, you said in the dream you were trying to get to me and the…kidnap-" Alexis couldn't finish that particular part "why would you dream something like that?"

"I-I…" Rome started to say as Castle came out of his room, he pulled on his jacket and smiled gently at Alexis and Rome felt relief wash over him, his dad's timing was perfect.

"Sweetie stay here with gram okay?"

"But dad I want to come," Alexis argued pulling on her own jacket "please,"

"I will text you and keep you guys updated. We'll be in and out I promise,"

"I'm good with the hospital dad honest," Rome spoke up

'"Good try kiddo, we're going," Castle chuckled, pulling Rome back into his arms and gave Alexis and Martha a careful wave as he pulled out his phone, calling for a taxi.

"Dad?" Rome said as they waited for the elevator

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"I'm sorry for being such a pain,"

Castle chuckled

"You're not a pain kiddo," he replied hugging Rome gently "the nightmare was pretty intense huh?"

"M had Alexis, I could see her dad, he was dragging her down the hall, I tried to catch up with them I couldn't, I was moving too slow,"

"It sounds like an intense nightmare Doc, but that's all it was, it was a bad dream." Castle paused "and it probably came from how the day went and the guilt playing on your mind,"

Rome nodded

"I guess,"

"We'll get this checked out and be home by morning, do you still want pancakes?"

"Yes dad,"

"You and your sister talking again?" Castle asked adjusting Rome a little, minding his arm

"She apologized for the silent treatment, I told her she shouldn't apologize 'cause it was my fault." Rome grinned a little "and gram wants the whole story,"

"Of course she does." Castle chuckled "I guess it's a good thing you and your sister don't have school tomorrow, I can see tomorrow being a long day huh?"

Rome smiled a little and nodded

"do we really have to go to the hospital?"

"Yes, kiddo,"

Rome made a face

"I hate hospitals,"

"Me too Doc, me too."

"Are you really going on an undercover operation with Detective Beckett?" Rome asked, changing the subject, he knew the hospital answer wasn't going to change, no matter how many times he asked it, so might as well move to a more interesting subject to take his mind off his sore arm.

Castle grinned wide

"You bet I am, let me tell you a little story about a Russian mobster and infiltrating the seedy underworld of Chinatown Triad Poker..."


	8. Chapter 8

Xxx

Rome's arm wasn't broken thankfully, he did sprain his shoulder from landing on it, but the ER doctor who examined him and looked over the x-rays assured father and son that after a few days Rome would be able to use his arm and it wouldn't be so sore. Also thankfully it was his right arm he manages to land on, so he wouldn't have to go through the annoyance of trying to write with his right hand.

It was nearly seven in the morning by the time the pair returned home and Rome had crashed long before they had even left the hospital.

Alexis was sleeping on the couch wrapped up in a blanket. Martha was in one of the easy chairs reading. She looked as exhausted as Castle felt but she managed to stay awake, though Castle suspected that she had taken a much-needed cat nap before he had texted her to let her know they were on their way home.

She looked up when Castle pushed open the door balancing Rome and the cup of bad coffee he was still consuming from the hospital vending machine. He didn't think there was anything in the world worse than the precincts coffee and he was surprised to be proven wrong. But at that point, he was willing to drink it, and it did seem to have the much-needed caffeine kick he was craving.

"Hello mother," he whispered so not to wake Alexis, there was no way anything would wake Rome up at that point, not that he would be able to hear anything anyway because he was so exhausted, his hearing had started to fade while they were in the waiting room and by the time the doctor was able to see him, it was completely gone.

"Oh Richard, you're home," she looked at Rome, then spotted his arm resting in a sling while his left arm was draped around his dad's neck. "Oh no," Martha breathed standing up quickly as Castle laid Rome onto the small armchair next to the couch, he practically disappeared into the squishy material as Castle carefully removed his jacket and sneakers, before tucking a blanket around him

"He's fine mother, it wasn't broken, it was just sprained, pretty badly sprained, the doctor said if he had fallen from a different height or had landed a different way he definitely would have broken either his arm or dislocated his shoulder so he's lucky he just sprained it."

"How long will he have to be in the sling?" Martha asked adding another blanket to Rome's collection, as Castle slipped off his own coat.

"A week at least," Castle paused and ran his hand down his face "he's lucky, it could've been much worse."

Martha reached over and brushed Rome's bangs back a bit, tucking some of the unruly hair behind his ears. She expected a normal reaction from her grandson, his instinct to squirm away when touched as he slept, but he didn't move, his breathing didn't even change. Concerned, Martha looked at her son expectantly.

"Richard, Rome seems a little more, well deep in slumber than just the usual exhaustion, is he alright?"

Castle sighed and sat down on the couch next to Alexis, who barely moved. He pulled her blankets closer under her chin, before looking back at his mother.

"They gave him something to relax him a little bit," he explained.

Martha's face went dramatically pale as she moved back to her grandson's side,

"Why in the world would they have to do that? He's had X-rays before, he's never been wiggly for them." Martha asked confused, she leaned over and made sure the blanket was tucked deeply around Rome as if she was trying to protect him from any more pain.

"He was fine until they went to put him in for the MRI, he had a well a panic attack right before he went inside." Castle ran his hand down his face, "wasn't expecting it, he was crying, begging to go home, it was awful."

"Why would they need to do an MRI Richard?" Martha asked, still confused

"Because I couldn't tell them definitively that he didn't hit his head on the way down, so they needed it to make sure he didn't have a concussion."

"Were they able to do it?"

"Once they got him calmed down a little, the MRI showed no sign of any concussion. Just the sprain. The doctor said that given the height he fell, he could have dislocated his shoulder, or broken his arm, so again he's lucky."

"How long will he be like this?"

"He should be sleeping off the medicine as we speak, he'll be a little groggy when he wakes up, but he'll be okay. Definitely a good thing they don't have school tomorrow, he can rest however long he needs too."

"Well, I suppose that's something." Martha paused and looked at her son sternly "so before you boys left, Rome was apologizing to Alexis about something that happened between them, care to explain?"

"I'd prefer to let them explain it, but cliff notes?"

"Cliff notes will work Richard."

"Rome decided to go for a little adventure after school today and he wouldn't tell Alexis where he was going, she was understandably worried and wasn't too happy with him. In all fairness I was a little upset with him too, it was a pretty stupid move on his part."

"What kind of adventure,"

"He went uptown to go talk to Dr. Parish,"

"The medical examiner?" Martha asked "Richard isn't that,"

"Up on 1st Ave?" Martha nodded "yes, yes it is. Ryan and Esposito luckily swung by to check on some things for their case and brought him to the 12th."

"Oh, Richard what are we going to do?" Martha said softly "This is not good, not good at all,"

"I think we may be in a better spot now actually, thanks to his little adventure, we actually sat down and talked. He's been trying to protect me mother, thinks that if he pretends he's okay I won't worry about him." Castle paused "in a way it's cute, but I wish he had told me sooner."

"Talking to the psychiatrist hasn't been helping?" Martha asked, "it seemed to."

"It's helping with certain parts mother, others are going to take longer for things to settle back down. I think this more recent development had something to do with a fight he had with Kevin, Gage, Joey, and Todd. I guess Todd confronted Rome about how quiet he's been and when they stopped talking to him he blew up at them and has been avoiding them the last few days."

"I knew we would be faced with some challenges after what happened, but I never expected it to be this bad."

"We had to be prepared for anything and to be honest mother, I don't think we really were. I think because Rome is usually such a happy-go-lucky kid, we got stuck on the idea that everything would go back to normal. It's just going to take a long time."

Martha nodded, she moved back towards Rome and tucked the blanket around him again.

"Poor baby,"

"I'm making Emergency Cheering up Pancakes tom...today you are more than welcome to join us." Castle offered and Martha smiled

"Count me in kiddo, I can never say no to Emergency Cheering up Pancakes" she looked over at the kids "should we put them in their own beds?"

Castle chuckled

"No, let them stay where they are, they look pretty comfy. Besides I'm taking the ladder off of Rome's bed for a while, that's going to take some time."

"Sounds like a good idea," Martha sighed "well I'm going to try and catch some more shut-eye, I will be up for pancakes Richard."

"Good night mother," Castle was about to head to his own room, but paused "mother I was thinking,"

"Uh oh,"

"Funny," Castle replied, "seriously though, how would you feel about Thanksgiving in the Hamptons this year?"

"Really darling? Why?"

"Do you remember that first year we had the house? We barely had the chance to use it that summer with all the renovations that were going on. It wasn't ready until right before Thanksgiving."

"I think that was one of the best Thanksgivings we ever had, Alexis and Rome dressed up in their costumes from the school Thanksgiving Play, we had Rome's cornucopia that he made. It was such a special time, of course, they've all been wonderful, but that one was especially wonderful." Martha paused "so why this year?"

"I think we all need to get out of the city, even if it's just for a long weekend. Especially Rome, he loves being able to sit out on the back and just sketch the ocean, I think it might be just what he needs, fresh ocean air."

Martha nodded

"I agree, it would be good for all of us. Of course, the question would be, can you stand not being first in line to see Santa at Macy's on Thanksgiving Day?" She blew Castle a kiss as she went into her bedroom, not waiting for a reply mainly because she knew the answer.

Castle made sure Rome and Alexis were both tucked in and had enough blankets, before heading into his office. He was feeling the exhaustion, but also wasn't ready to try and get some sleep, the coffee was doing its job. He rubbed his chin as he sat at his desk thinking back to the house hunt for their perfect Hampton Home, it hadn't been easy and it was definitely more of a task than he had expected, all revolving around Alexis and Rome.

*December 2004*

Castle glanced into the rearview mirror of the Mercedes, checking on Alexis and Rome in the backseat. Alexis didn't mind long car rides, but Rome got bored very quickly, even to the point where his DS couldn't distract him and drawing in the car was out of the question because he was such a little perfectionist when it came to his art the bumps in the road wouldn't work well.

Alexis had plenty to occupy herself, books to read, music to listen to, and dolls to play with.

Four, nearly five-year-old Rome couldn't listen to music at least not with headphones and even without headphones it was tricky for him and he tended to get somewhat car sick if he tried to read in a moving car and he refused to play Barbie road-trip with his sister.

Castle and the kids were off in search of a house. Though Castle was regretting using that phrase in front of Rome since he was convinced they were moving and he didn't want to move. Ten-year-old Alexis, however, was agreeing with her brother and didn't like this idea of house hunting, not one bit.

What Castle had spent the last hour trying to get the kids to understand was the fact that they were not moving that the house hunt was strictly for the purpose of finding a summer house, which led to more confusion and arguments as Alexis pointed out that they already had a summer house why did they need another one, they both liked the house they didn't want a new one.

The truth was the house that Castle rented every summer was all well and good, but it wasn't theirs. The Carmichaels' who owned the five-bedroom beach house were wonderful people and has been renting the property to the Castle family since Alexis was in diapers and early on the arrangement of three weeks in the summer plus Memorial Day weekend worked perfectly for both party's but now that Rome and Alexis were getting older Castle felt more comfortable and more ready to accept the fact they needed a place of their own. One they could change around and go to anytime they wanted.

Not to mention Donald Carmichael had been hinting that him and his wife Lisa were reaching the point where they wanted to live in the Hampton's full time, they wanted more time with their grandkids and weren't planning on traveling as much anymore, just enjoying the beach and their retirement.

So that was why on a blustery Saturday right before Christmas vacation, Castle had woken both kids up at 7:30, loaded them, some snacks and entertainment in the car and headed off for the Hampton's.

Rome was a night owl and not a morning person so he basically slept through the entire time of his dad picking him up out of bed, carrying him to the car and putting him in his booster seat. It wasn't until Castle stopped a Dunkin Donuts did Rome wake up asking for a hot chocolate and a muffin before going back to sleep.

"Daddy," Alexis called bringing Castle back to the present as they neared the exit for the area of the Hamptons he wanted to stay in "daddy how much longer are we going to be in the car, Rome keeps kicking my leg and he's doing on purpose."

"I am not," Rome argues "I'm doing it on accident,"

"You are not!"

"I am too"

"You are not Roman!"

"I am too Alexis!" Rome shot back enunciating his sister's name. "It's all by accident we learned what an accident is in school, it's when something happens that isn't in purpose. I can even spell it and Mrs. Hassal even taught me how to fingerspell it." Rome explained, "so I am doing it by accident Alexis."

Castle tried not to laugh, the pair of them sounded like the twins Phil and Lil from that cartoon on nickelodeon the Rugrats.

Anytime the twins got into an argument they would use each other's full name emphasizing the syllables their names and that was exactly what Alexis and Rome were doing; even though both Alexis and Rome watched the cartoon, Castle was pretty sure neither of them knew they were copying Phil and Lil.

As comical as it was Castle knew this kind of argument between his kids could go on for hours, forget hours, days. So he knew he had to put an end to it.

"Okay that's enough," he called and instantly both kids were quiet and for the most part, still, though Castle did see Rome reach over and this time purposely nudge his sister's leg with his outstretched foot. "Roman, first time may have been an accident but I think continuing it counts as on purpose. Apologize to your sister okay doc?"

"Yes daddy," Rome replied somberly "I'm sorry Lexis," Alexis, however, crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips together tight. Rome with his dwindling hearing always assumed other people had the same issue, so he just figured that his sister hasn't heard him "I'm sorry Lexis," he repeated a little louder this time and now Alexis looked out the window ignoring her brother, and Rome knew this was on purpose. He looked at his dad his lip quivering "daddy?" He called.

Castle rolled his eyes as he tried again not to laugh

"Alexis, pumpkin your brother apologized come on kiddo, can you at least respond to him?"

Alexis shook her head and gave Rome the sign for no. Castle had to admit he was proud of how far along both kids had come in the signing department. He was doing okay as was his mother, Meredith she honestly couldn't do simple signs, and Gina his publisher/on and off girlfriend, she was actually catching up to him by taking some courses on ASL.

"Fine, then you can't have the rest of my muffin." Rome declared, which wasn't really much of a threat. Castle was thankful when they reached the first house on his list.

"Here we go guys house numero uno!"

Alexis was in awe of the large Cape Cod style home, as they piled out of the car but Rome looked at it apprehensively, he reached over and hugged Alexis around the waist clearly forgetting or ignoring the whole incident in the car. He looked over at Castle his lip quivering and his eyes filling with noticeable tears.

"Daddy?" He called softly "daddy did Gina fire you?" He asked, "Is that why we hafta move?"

Alexis looked at her brother quickly as if she hasn't even considered that possibility but now she was worried about the same thing.

"Are we? Are we really moving? I don't want to leave my friends!"

"Me either!" Rome added "what about gram? We left her in the city. We can't leave gram in the city!"

"Whoa, whoa hold up second guys," Castle exclaimed he reached over and picked Rome up and hugged him and Alexis close, "no one said anything about moving. Guys, we're not leaving the city. We're not moving at least not technically," he sighed and sat down on the front porch putting both kids on his knees. He made sure Rome could see his lips just to be sure both his kids understood.

"Daddy you look so serious," Alexis concluded, "we are moving aren't we?"

"No guys we are not moving, I promise we are not moving. We're here looking for a new house for when we come to the Hampton's, we will still live in the same loft in the city, this will just be when we go on vacation."

"But what about the house on the beach, the one we rent from the Carm…Carmi…" Rome made a face he could never pronounce the older couple's last name and Castle knew it was just one of many things that frustrated his son.

"Mr. and Mrs. Carmichael are not going to be renting out their house much longer, they love the Hamptons so much they want to stay here all the time. So we aren't going to be renting their house anymore."

"But I like that house," Rome sniffed "I could reach the cookie cabinet without climbing on the counter and it had that secret caw space in the playroom and the backyard is big enough to shoot off fireworks!"

"I think you mean crawl space doc, and I know it's not easy saying goodbye to something so familiar, but come on we get the chance to find a house that we love and we can make it ours."

Rome didn't look all that convinced but Alexis did and Rome seemed to follow his sister's lead even though he clearly apprehensive about it.

"Oh," Rome and Alexis said at the same time.

"I wanted you guys with me for this because it won't be my house it's going to be our house. We're going to make a lot of great memories here just like we made some great memories at the Carmichaels' house. Alexis learned how to swim in their pool, Rome you built your first sandcastle a by yourself on the beach. So we won't forget those memories right?"

Rome's face scrunched up and he looked very confused as he looked up at the house in front of them.

"So this is our new summer home?" He asked and Alexis looked at him quickly, then at their dad for confirmation, the three of them looked up at the huge house in front of them.

"It might be, we won't know until we go inside and check it out, it has to feel right guys and if this one doesn't feel right, it's okay." Castle smiled and picked Rome up "I've got a whole list of properties for sale that we're going to check out."

"Daddy, I have a question,"

"Ask away Pumpkin," Castle replied

"What if you and Rome like it and I don't?" Alexis asked, "or if Rome and I like it but you don't?"

"It has to be unanimous guys." Castle explained, "you know what that means right?"

Alexis nodded happily

"I do daddy,"

Rome shook his head

"I don't, what does amanious mean?" He asked

Alexis raised her hand and bounced around like she was in school

"Can I tell him daddy please, please?"

"Go ahead kiddo,"

"Rome," Alexis said, her tone resembling a teacher as she signed to her brother, making sure he was paying attention to her. "A unanimous decision is where everyone involved agrees. If I don't like the house and you and daddy do, that's not unanimous. But if we all like the house then that is unanimous."

Rome nodded

"Oh, okay Lex, I get it,"

"Anyways, it's just the first house."

"You must be Mr. Castle!" a new voice caught the family's attention, the Realtor stood in the doorway with a wide grin on her face

"Uh, yes,"

"Judy Shells, it is an honor to meet you and your," she paused and looked down at Alexis and Rome "kids," she looked at her clipboard "well Mr. Castle, I received your email with your specification. Two things you seemed adamant about is a swimming pool and private beach access if possible?" she looked down at the kids again "most of the houses we have available are not exactly child-proof, especially in the backyard. Most of these properties were designed for retirees without children so most of the pools are not fenced in and the paths to the beach will not have fences either. Those two facts are something you might want to consider. I do have some lovely properties that cater to a young family setting."

"I do appreciate the concern Mrs. Shells," Castle replied, coughing back a laugh "but I think we'll be okay."

Mrs. Shells nodded,

"Well, why don't we go inside and have a look at this lovely little property," she smiled and laughed at her own joke "of course, it's not little," Rome and Alexis exchanged a look, before looking up at their dad confused "little Hamptons joke, there is nothing little about the properties I'm about to show you, folks."

The first property that Mrs. Shells showed the family didn't hit any of them, Alexis said the cellar gave her the creeps because it was unfinished, Rome said the house smelled funny, and Castle wasn't all that impressed with the property in general. He wanted something they could make their own and he just wasn't visualizing anything that could work.

The second house wasn't much better, though Rome loved the fact that it had a third-floor loft and a small crawl space like the one in the Carmichaels' but it had a very small backyard and the path to the beach actually involved crossing the main road and unlike the Carmichaels' as well as many other properties, at both houses, it was difficult to see the ocean from any part of the house.

Even the third house, though better than the other two, wasn't their dream home so after a quick vote, it was shot down. By noon, both kids were starting to get hungry and therefore cranky, even Alexis had reached a whiny point. So Castle told Mrs. Shells they were going to take a lunch break and she suggested a restaurant the family knew very well, LT Burgers in Sag Harbor, about ten minutes from where they were. It was a favorite of the whole family and they ate there at least three times during their vacations.

She told Castle her office was just around the corner and she would meet the family at the next property when Castle offered to buy her lunch, she politely refused. Castle had gotten the impression early on that Mrs. Shell was not a kid person, and even though his kids weren't typical kids, she really didn't see them any different than the screaming, tantrum-throwing child that was being led out of the restaurant when they pulled up.

"YAY!" Rome exclaimed, wiggling out of his booster seat "LT!"

"Whoa, Doc, wait for us," Castle called as Rome slid out of the car and made a beeline for the restaurant, luckily Alexis was already out of the car and grabbed her little brother by his jacket, pulling him to a stop before a car came into the parking lot. "Rome, are you okay?" Castle exclaimed dashing over to his son and lifting him up "kiddo I told you to wait, you know better than to run in a parking lot, you're supposed to hold my hand remember?"

"I'm sorry daddy," Rome whimpered

"Did you hear me calling you?" Rome tilted his head to one side and gave the sign for no, "hearing going kiddo?" he nodded "well you've had a few good days in a row, a bad one was bound to happen. Do you want me to adjust your hearing aids?"

"Yes, daddy,"

"Okay, I'll take care of it inside, for now, let's go get some grub, I don't know about you two, but I'm starving."

Inside the restaurant, Castle and the kids got settled in a booth. After the drinks had been ordered, Rome set to work organizing the five crayons the waitress had left them, he was clearly disappointed with the art supplies but was used to slim pickings at restaurants.

"Daddy?" he asked, "do you have a pencil on you?"

Castle reached into his jacket pocket, searching,

"I don't have a pencil kiddo, will a pen work?"

Rome nodded

"Yup," he took the pen from his dad and began drawing a picture of Sully from Monster's Inc on the back of his menu, ignoring the puzzles and coloring spots on the kid-friendly place-mat. "I wish we had bought my crayons," he added

"I think you mean brought and I'm sorry Doc, that was my fault, I thought I had everything, but forgot the crayons,"

"It's okay daddy," Rome replied, humming as he drew.

"So guys, the house hunt wasn't exactly a success huh?"

"No daddy," Alexis replied, she took one of Rome's crayons and began working on the maze on the kid's place-mat.

"Okay, I sent Mrs. Shells-" Rome and Alexis looked at each other and began giggling and Castle couldn't help but join them "her name?"

"It's funny daddy," Alexis said "because she sells houses that are near the beach and her name is Shells,"

"Nice connection guys, okay anyways I sent Mrs. Shells a list of what I wanted in the house and what I thought you guys would want, but why don't you guys tell me what you know you would want, if you guys got the chance to make your very own beach house what would it look like?"

Rome and Alexis exchanged a look and began listing back and forth everything they wanted in a house, Castle couldn't help but notice that their description of a perfect beach house (minus Rome's suggestion of a treehouse like in Swiss Family Robinson) sounded exactly like the Carmichaels' house.

He was about to comment on that when his cell phone went off. It was Mrs. Shell, Castle sighed, he was actually starting to regret the whole Realtor thing.

"Castle?"

"Mr. Castle, Mrs. Shell I know you're out to lunch with the children, but I was just notified about a property that meets a good hamp of your list," she chuckled at her own joke, but Castle could only give a polite laugh. "Anyways, would you be willing to see a place that's about 40 minutes away, just off of Old Montauk Highway."

Castle thought that over, rubbing his chin, it was a little further out than he really wanted to go. But, it was worth a shot, it would have to be the last property they looked at for the day, maybe after the holidays, they could try again.

The kids were getting bored, Castle could see Rome's ears were starting to bother him because he was rubbing them absentmindedly, which meant if his hearing was acting up, then an ear infection was on its way.

"Sure, I could meet you up there in say an hour? We just sat down,"

"An hour is perfect Mr. Castle," Mrs. Shell replied, giving him the address and rough directions, before hanging up.

"Are we going home soon?" Alexis asked

"Mrs. Shells says she has one more place for us to check out and she thinks we're really going to like this one."

Alexis looked at Rome and both tried to keep the disappointment off their faces, they really were done with the house hunt thing and just wanted to go home. But they both knew how much this meant to their dad, so silently they agreed to go along with it.

"Okay daddy," they replied in unison.

After lunch, Castle loaded the kids back into the car and they headed off to the address that Mrs. Shell gave him.

The road Castle turned off onto was a long winding dirt road, the mysteriousness of it irked all three's curiosity, both kids were looking out the windows and out the front window in amazement.

The house wasn't huge, at least compared to some of the houses they had seen, but it was still a good size especially to Rome and Alexis who were sure they were looking at a mansion. To Castle, he liked the colonial look of the house, with lots of windows and a loop around porch.

"Wow," Rome breathed

"Was that a wow I heard Romey?" Castle asked chuckling and Rome nodded as Mrs, Shell came out of the front door

"Oh good you found it, I know it's more out of the way then you were hoping for Mr. Castle, but I think you will really like what I have to show you." She paused "normally I would start with the house itself, but there is one thing I think you and the children will find most appealing." Mrs. Shell said gesturing for the family to follow her around the house, through a gate, and into the backyard.

All three stood in amazement at the sight of the large backyard and a picturesque view of the ocean complete with a private beach.

"Wow," all three breathed, Castle looked down at the kids and all three were clearly thinking the same thing, the house could be nothing like what they wanted, it could be the complete opposite of any dream house they had, the backyard was perfect and the house no matter what it looked like inside could be changed easily. They had found the perfect Hamptons House.

Xxx

"Dad?" Castle was pulled out of his memory by Rome's voice calling for him, he made his way around his desk "DAD!" Rome's voice became more urgent and Castle tripped over his chair as he scrambled to get to his son.

Rome was standing in the doorway, rubbing his eyes with his good hand

"Kiddo, are you okay?" Castle exclaimed dropping to one knee so he was eye-level with Rome.

"Yeah, I…thought we were still at the hospital, and I go…got."

"You got a little scared Doc?" Rome nodded "it's okay Romey," he paused "is your arm hurting? The doctor said it be okay for you to take some Children's Tylenol if its sore." Rome nodded again "come on kiddo," Castle carefully lifted Rome up and carried him into his bathroom and set him on the counter. Rome gave a wide yawn as Castle reached into the medicine cabinet and pulled out the Children's Tylenol. "Still tired doc,"

"Yeah, just a little,"

"Well, you can go back to sleep for a little while, no school today and I just want you to relax and hang out today. Sound good?"

Rome nodded

"Definitely," he replied, "you're going to take my ladder down aren't you dad?"

"Doc, we've seen it many times before, if I make you sleep on the bottom bunk you just wander back up to the top anyways. You've been doing that since you were four."

Rome shrugged and grinned

"Sorry?"

"It's only a for a few weeks kiddo, we've got to give that arm time to heal. Remember what the doctor said?"

"He said I was very lucky how I landed, 'cause I might have broken my arm or even dislocated my shoulder."

Castle nodded

"Exactly," he handed Rome the two chew-able tablets and picked Rome up off the countertop, heading back into his bedroom. "Hey Rome, look at that you're up with the sun," Rome made a face and yawned again

"I think I'd rather be asleep through it."

"Do you want to crash in my bed?"

"Can I dad?"

"Sure, I was going to get some writing done anyways," Castle replied setting Rome down on the plush carpet as he ran and made a move to dive into the huge bed before remembered his arm. "You know the last time you and I were up this early, just the two of us, you were probably a year old,"

Rome looked at his dad confused as he snuggled under the thick comforter

"Why?"

"You had an ear infection that was pretty bad all night long. You were crying and couldn't sleep, I think it was around two in the morning I finally got you calmed down enough to sleep, you were still down here at that time so I got you into your crib and figured you'd be out for a while, you'd pretty much cried yourself to sleep anyways. But you were back up around six, screaming and crying again."

Rome winced

"Sorry?" he said softly and Castle chuckled

"It wasn't bad kiddo, you and I got to watch the sun come up together, we stood right in my office near the window and watched it come through the buildings. I don't know why, but it calmed you down, you zonked right out again. I've got a lot of great memories of your baby days, and that is one of my favorites. It was worth the no sleep, just to watch the sun come up with my son."

Rome nodded and snuggled deeper, Castle started for the bedroom door, but turned when he heard Rome sitting up again,

"Dad?" Rome called and Castle nodded

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"Sorry for the freak out at the hospital."

"Doc, it was bound to happen, besides, those machines can be pretty scary even for an adult, let alone a kid. There's no reason to apologize, remember what Dr. Pillar said before you left the hospital a few weeks ago?"

"I have to be ready for random things that might trigger panic attacks, like seeing the plastic ties at school or feeling certain vibrations."

"Or being in a dark room or being put in an enclosed space." Castle paused and sat down next to Rome on the bed "It will get better Rome, I promise it will, it's only been a few weeks, soon the nightmares won't be as bad, the panic attacks will happen less often, I'm not saying we'll ever completely forget what happened, we won't kiddo as much as I would love to erase all of our memories about it, or even better build a time machine and stop it from actually happening-"

"You and me both," Rome muttered and Castle gently elbowed him in the ribs, minding his arm. "Right sorry dad,"

"It's true though kiddo if I could I would do all of that. But since I can't we just have to deal with it as best we can." Castle leaned over and hugged Rome, kissing the top of his head, Rome started to squirm away but decided to just get it over with, but that didn't mean he couldn't voice his complaint.

"dad," he grumbled "come on, no kissing,"

"Only if you promise me something?"

"Yeah?"

"If you feel like you can't talk to someone in this general area, instead of taking a trip uptown by yourself, let me know first and I will gladly give you a ride to whoever you need to talk too."

Rome grinned a little and nodded

"Okay I promise dad," he replied and held out his pinky finger as father and son pinky swore on the matter.

"Good. Try to get some sleep Doc, I'll wake you up in a couple of hours for pancakes."

Rome nodded and carefully laid back down, minding his arm as he pulled the blankets up over his body.

"Chocolate chips," he mumbled "with extra chocolate chips and whipped cream,"

"Whatever you want Dr. Watson if you want a sundae style pancake that's what you get." Castle replied but didn't get a response, Rome was out like a light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so I had been dying to do that flashback for a while when I originally wrote this fic, but didn't have enough to really make a full flashback on it, until the day I was rewatching season 5 and watched the episode 'Murder He wrote' and bam, inspiration hit.
> 
> So a little background, the house that was used for Castle's Hampton house is actually in California and the interior was of course on a sound-stage, but while playing around on Google Earth, I found a property that landscape and location wise is a pretty close replica of the property shown in the show so I used that as the basis. The restaurant I mentioned is also real and is supposedly one of the best burger places in the Hamptons
> 
> I know I took some liberties regarding when and how Castle purchased his Hampton home, but hopefully it wasn't too big of an AU incident.


	9. Chapter 9

By the time Rome's alarm went off the following morning sending a vibration of Beethoven's 5th symphony through the wooden frame of his bed, he actually felt a lot better about how the day would go.

A whole day home with his dad and sister helped, not to forget talking to Lanie and more importantly finally talking to his dad. Rome hasn't realized how much he needed that, that he just needed to talk to his dad, and what a difference it truly made.

Alexis walked past his room and poked her head into his room, she was smiling all trace of her being mad at him was long gone.

"You're going to be late Rome," she called knocking on his door frame to catch his attention.

"I'm awake," he replied grinning

"Being awake and getting up are two different things," she shot back walking over to the bottom bunk. Always mothering him, Alexis double-checked his uniform before leaning on his bed to look him square in the eyes. "How'd you sleep?" She asked, leaving the question as a double meaning.

The first part of it was geared towards his actual arm making sure the sprain was okay. Rome tended to sleep curled up in a little ball when he slept and on a normal circumstance that was fine, but with his arm in a sling, it would be that much more difficult to make sure he wasn't doing anything to re-injure it.

"Doing okay," he said getting the double question pretty easy "much better than the other day," both knew that Alexis was also asking about the nightmares, but she was also asking if they were okay. She hated being mad at Rome and he hated fighting with his sister. They were too close to go long term without speaking to each other.

"That's good," she replied

"You doing okay?" He asked carefully and Alexis nodded "good," she reached over and hugged him tightly. "Argh Alexis no hugging!" He groaned Alexis grinned

"If that bothered you you're really going to love this" she leaned forward again and kissed his head as he swatted her away. "Dads going to come up and get you soon. Hurry and get up I'm leaving with or without you in ten minutes!" she threatened to head out.

Rome grinned and slid out of bed, he knew for a fact that his sister wouldn't leave without him, she could threaten all she wanted, but it was just a lot of hot air. Though she did have a point, he was running late.

He quickly got dressed and darted down the stairs. He had to run back up those same stairs because he realized halfway down that he forgot his hearing aids.

When he finally got downstairs, he darted over to the closet and pulled on his sneakers, his dad and grandmother were watching him, both chuckling a little as Rome shrugged.

"Richard," gram was saying and that caught Rome's attention as he finished tying his sneaker. "that's appalling. Wagering on death."

"They're already dead, Mother. And who's to say that catching killers cannot be fun?"

"Dad, why are you making bets on dead people?"

"It's a long story Doc,"

"School doesn't start for an hour,"

"Nice try. Where's your backpack Doc?"

"Oops," Rome exclaimed, darting back upstairs

"Hey, Dad, are you working tonight?" Alexis was asking when he came back down with his bag

"Maybe." Castle answered grinning "Why?"

"Oh, I just have math club till six, and then I wanted to take Owen out for a birthday banana split at Serendipity. I just want to do something special because things have been a little rocky with us lately."

Castle looked over at Rome and they grinned

"Nothing smoothes rocky like Rocky Road. Just remember, it's a school night. Be home by midnight."

"Dad, I'll be home by nine."

"Can I take her extra three hours dad and stay out?"

"Second round Doc, nice try, no you've got this wonderful thing called a curfew for your adventure yesterday and that goes into effect today and will continue for the next week or so."

"Aw, man dad,"

"Go to school, you guys,

"Right, Love you," Alexis called to Castle, hugging him, he turned to Rome who was adjusting the strap of his backpack, still trying to get used to the new bag, not to mention putting the somewhat stiff bag on with his arm in the sling.

"Love you guys,"

"Yeah, bye, darling." Martha waved

"Bye guys, come on Rome,"

Rome had moved over to the fridge to get a Sunny D,

"Lex wait for me!" he exclaimed grabbing the drink and slinging his bag over one shoulder.

"running late Doc?" Castle asked grinning

"Nope, no yet!"

"Want some help with your bag?"

"Naw, I've got it, this works," Rome replied grinning "it's a fad,"

"Right," Castle chuckled "you're okay right?"

"Yes, dad I am,"

"No adventures today got it? Come right home,"

Rome nodded

"I will, Bye dad, bye gram!"

"Bye kiddo" Martha called

"Have a good day Doc,"

Rome ran to catch Alexis in the hall at the elevator. The walk to school was pretty typical, Alexis even pulled him into the local coffee shop near the loft and bought him a muffin and a hot chocolate. To Rome it was the final proof that Alexis wasn't mad at him anymore, he knew he would definitely have to repay her, somehow.

Rome waved bye to his sister and headed towards the middle school wing. He had promised his dad that he would try to talk to Todd, Joey, Kevin, and Gage, even though he'd rather face about twenty ear infections back to back than face his friends.

He headed to his locker and took out his science and social studies books before he carefully pushed his backpack inside the locker.

Even with his hearing aids in, the chatter of his classmates was just a buzz in his ears, it was going to be a bad hearing day, which sucked because it started out pretty good. He has heard the whole conversation that his dad had with Gram about the bet and was pretty amused by it, even though Gram was appalled, though it was kind of hard to tell if she was serious or not.

Apparently, the detectives had two dead bodies within hours of one another and Castle had instigated Espo and Ryan into a bet on who would solve their case first.

Rome was sure that the entire precinct was getting involved, except for Detective Beckett of course who even Rome knew would kill his dad and partners if she found out about the wagering. Rome was honestly surprised she hadn't caught on or the fact that Captain Montgomery hadn't caught on either.

He was about to shut his locker when felt someone come up behind him and he instinctively tensed, part of it was worry that it was his friends and the other part was the ongoing tension of anyone walking up behind him. It had gotten better in the past few weeks but Rome still flashed back to the factory, to the crate, to...M. Those hard-soled shoes on the cement floor, walking, vibrating, and sending chills through Rome's body.

Slowly he turned around and couldn't help but sigh with relief, it was only Emily, she was smiling at him.

"Hi Rome," she said waving, she wasn't very good at sign language but it was trying her hardest.

"Hi Emily," he replied that was when she spotted his arm and the sling. Her eyes went wide with horror, clearly wanting to hug Rome, but not sure if she should.

"What happened to you?!" She asked

"Fell out off-" he stopped he wanted to have something a little more impressive than falling out of bed because of a nightmare. Besides, he was pretty embarrassed by that fact and the fact that his bunk bed was now missing its ladder to keep him off of it. He was ten years old going on eleven, he was too old to be falling out of bed, let alone having nightmares. "I…I…"

"You fell?" Emily guessed pushing him to keep going, Emily wasn't the kind of person who it was easy to lie to she just emanated an aura of confidant, someone you could easily talk to no matter what.

"Yeah, I fell. My dad and I were uh, in the park yesterday-" Rome stumbled a little he hated to lie to Emily, it just didn't feel right. In fact, he was really tired of lying to everyone

"Did you fall off your bike?" Emily guessed Rome shrugged "oh Rome that's nothing to be embarrassed about, I fall of mine all the time. It's my sister's old bike and I'm still trying to get used to it."

"Thanks, Em," Rome replied

"Rome can I ask you something?" Emily asked carefully.

Rome nodded

"Sure,"

"Rome are you and Todd, Gage, Kevin, and Joey made at each other?" Rome nodded again "why? What happened?"

"I did something kinda stupid. But don't worry it'll be okay. I'm going to talk to them today." Emily looked at him sternly, the look was almost like Alexis' and the look she had been giving Rome and their dad for as long as Rome could remember, it almost made Rome laugh, but it also made him wince a little too.

"I'm sure there's a good story behind it huh?" Emily asked

"Pretty good," Emily looked over his shoulder

"Guess it's going to have to wait, bell's about to ring." She smiled shyly "see you in math?" she signed and Rome nodded and signed 'yes' back and with that she headed down the hall for her homeroom.

Taking a deep breath, Rome shut his own locker and headed into his homeroom, moving as slow as he possibly could.

When he walked into the classroom, he looked around scoping out his friends, Todd, who was wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt was easy to pick out. Rome grinned a little, wondering how long it was going to take for Mr. Tucker to notice. If Rome and his friends weren't still mad at each other, there would've been a bet in the works for how long it would take Mr. Tucker. Rome was betting that Mr. Tucker would be so focused on reviewing for their test that he wouldn't notice for a good ten minutes.

Todd stared at Rome's arm the minute he spotted his friend, he wasn't able to keep the concern off his face, his constant worry about his younger and smaller friend was always on his mind even with the fight.

"What the heck happened to you?" Todd blurted out loudly before anyone could even say hi, he had barely walked into the classroom. Rome wanted to make a sarcastic comment to that but thought better of it.

Let it go, move on, that was the advice his dad had given him and he knew his dad was right. He was tired of holding a grudge, of fighting. Holding a grudge was why he had been kidnapped in the first place, M had held a grudge against Castle and Martha and that was why he went after someone they both would do anything to get back.

Rome didn't want to be like that EVER. He knew he had to let it go. He had to as his grandmother always said 'bury the hatchet,' though he still wasn't sure what that exactly meant.

"I..." Rome started to say, he hadn't really lied to Emily about how he hurt his arm, she had guessed and guessed wrong, and Rome hadn't corrected her out of sheer embarrassment. But there had been enough lies going on between him and his friends. Besides, it wasn't as embarrassing telling them that he fell out of bed, among friends it was laughable, it was embarrassing telling Emily for some bizarre reason.

"Dude come on what happened?" Gage pushed

"I fell out of bed the other night." Rome expected his friends to laugh and would have welcomed that friendly gesture, but to his surprise, Todd looked angry. Gage and Joey looked ready to laugh, but they too were surprised by Todd's angry face.

"Wow, couldn't come up with a better story than that? Pretty pathetic Rome,"

Rome felt his heart pick up speed, his stomach twisted.

"Todd," Joey hissed "shut up," but Todd ignored him,

"Yeah you're right Todd I'm lying, dad took me sky diving this morning and my parachute didn't open and I sprained my shoulder. Sure that makes a better story don't you think. 'Stead of falling off the top bunk something we've all done at least once. Remember the first time you slept over? You begged to sleep on the top bunk and forgot where you were and fell out my dad was so afraid you had hit your head he took you to the hospital. Look I'm sorry I lied to you guys before and I'm sorry I didn't tell you the real story about Labor Day. Don't you guys see how something like that could really be hard to talk about?" He bit his lip, please don't cry, please don't cry he begged his body to listen to reason. "You know what this was a mistake I shouldn't have even tried. I'm sorry," he muttered and walked over to his seat closer to the front where he'd be able to see Mrs. Blackstone signing to him.

He glanced behind him and saw Gage start to walk over but Mr. Tucker their homeroom and science teacher walked in with Mrs. Blackstone to start homeroom and class.

Mrs. Blackstone waved at Rome, signing 'good morning' to him he waved back and pointed at his arm, when she spotted it she shook her head at him, signing 'are you okay?' he nodded, Castle had called the school to give them a heads up about Rome's arm and to make sure he wasn't in gym, so all the teachers knew. Mrs. Blackstone was about to continue the question but stopped because one of the high school kids came on the loudspeaker.

"Good morning Marlowe Prep, please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence."

Even though he could hear the announcement, sorta, Rome looked to Mrs. Blackstone who gestured for him to stand as the pledge was recited throughout the whole school. He watched her the entire time and stayed watching her when he pledge ended and the school announcements began, anything to keep from looking to where his friends sat.

Maybe he had screwed up, let too much time pass and now their friendship was in the fire. But, Rome thought about it, Joey had told Todd to shut up, so maybe it was just Todd who was still mad.

Of course, this didn't make things better, Todd and Gage were his first best friends he knew them long before Kevin and certainly longer than Joey. Losing that friendship really hurt.

Once the announcements ended, Mr. Tucker began reviewing for their upcoming test on the scientific method. Rome made sure his eyes never left the smartboard, Mr. Tucker, or Mrs. Blackstone.

When class ended Rome and his classmates gathered their books and lined up to go next door for social studies. He made sure to line up towards the front, but he knew he'd only be able to avoid his friends for a short time.

The social studies teacher Mrs. Daley greeted them in the hallway as they walked in. The room had once been a science room for the high schoolers when Marlowe was just for high school when it first opened. Eventually, it grew to include middle school before becoming a school for grades pre-k through twelfth right when Rome was entering pre-school. So the room had the same blacktopped desks that the science room had, it also meant that they had to share the desk. In science, he shared it with a new kid named Brady, but in social studies, he shared it with Gage.

He beat Gage into the room and pulled out his folder to get his homework ready for Mrs. Daley to come around and check that it was done, as Gage sat down next to him he tried to ignore his friend.

Apparently, after his refusal to look anywhere but upfront all through science, Gage was assuming that Rome's hearing was acting up so he wrote a note.

Gage was a lefty too so Rome could feel his friend's arm bumping into his binder and therefore his arm still resting in the sling, as Gage wrote quickly.

When he finished, he slid the note to Rome, who reluctantly took it. Mrs. Daley was still in the hall as was mandatory for the teachers between classes so the note-passing wasn't exactly a problem yet, it would be as soon all the students were clear from the hall and she came inside. But still, Rome didn't want to read it, he didn't even want to look at it, but he had to swallow his pride and see what Gage wanted.

He opened the folded note and read it:

'I'm sorry Todd jumped down your throat in homeroom, I know you were trying to apologize and he does too, Todd was just being Todd, you know how he can be. Please can we stop the fighting and talk?'

Rome read the note a couple of times. He took a deep breath and nodded, he didn't want to fight with his friends anymore, and if Todd was just being prideful and like Gage said, being Todd, he would come around eventually. Smiling a little, Rome drew a quick cartoon of himself falling out of bed. He folded it passed the note back to Gage just as Mrs. Daley walked in shutting the door behind her.

"All right everyone make sure your homework is out and ready for me to gaze upon its awesomeness. The morning work is on the board, you have started on that by now and we'll go over it and the homework in a few minutes. Remember, no talking."

She walked to Rome and Gage first and checked theirs before moving on to the pair behind them. While she was checking homework there wasn't supposed to be any talking, on the board she had written the warm-up they were expected to complete by the time she finished checking homework.

They would then go over the warm-up and then the class would start the actual lesson of the day. Which was the Roman mythology.

The morning work was to write down as many of the listed Roman gods and goddesses that were on the smartboard and write down their Greek counterparts. Rome had gotten as far as Jupiter and Mercury when he realized Gage had unwrapped the note and winced as his friend started to laugh.

Gage wasn't one to draw negative attention to himself in class, as good in school as Rome was, his friend was much better. Gage was usually on the honor roll every semester, he rarely if ever had a grade lower than an B + since first grade. He'd never been in serious trouble in the entire time Rome had known him, in fact, he was usually the voice of reason in the group and he was usually pretty good at it.

"Gage," Rome whispered, "shh, you're going to get in-"

"Gage!" Mrs. Daley's voice caught everyone's attention, Rome who expected it couldn't help but jump in his seat. Next to him, Gage literally went stiff and Rome winced. "Come on you know what you're supposed to be doing, what is so funny up there?"

"I…I…" Gage stuttered, trying to come up with an explanation. Rome turned in his seat and looked at his teacher

"It was my fault, Mrs. Daley,"

"Rome?" she asked

"I was talking to myself about how weird it was going to be talking about the Roman gods when it's got my name in it."

Mrs. Daley rolled her eyes

"And you felt the need to laugh at that Gage?"

Gage looked at his friend quickly, realizing that Rome was not only covering for him but basically giving him a way out of trouble.

"Yes, Mrs. Daley, I'm sorry, I heard Rome talking to himself and what he said was funny."

"Is that a fact Rome?"

Rome nodded

"Okay you two, you're off the hook for now, but you guys know the rules, there will be plenty of time for discussion after I'm finished so try to keep the comments and the thinking aloud to yourselves for a few more minutes, okay?"

Both boys nodded as Mrs. Daley headed to finish checking the homework. Gage and Rome exchanged a look and grinned at each other, trying not to laugh, they glanced back in unison where Joey and Kevin were sitting at different tables, but near enough to each other. They too exchanged a look and grinned at Rome and Gage, the four boys using that moment to silently forgive each other.

There was, however, still Todd to deal with and Rome wondered how long that was going to take, of his four friends, Todd was easily the most stubborn.

After social studies, the students headed out into the hallway joining their fellow sixth graders, to put their morning books away and get whatever they needed for their first special of the day. Joey's locker was two down from Rome, so they were able to talk while they got their stuff for whatever special they had.

Joey had gotten permission from his parents, guidance counselor, and the teacher in charge of the class, Dr. Yang to take a class usually reserved for seventh, eighth, and high school kids; forensics.

Over the last couple of years, Joey had developed a real interest in CSI type stuff and really wanted to learn more about the career that was the main focus of one of his favorite TV shows.

Before the fight, Rome had been meaning to talk to Detective Beckett and to Dr. Parish about helping Joey out and what he needed to do to get into that field.

"So what were you and Gage really laughing about?" Joey asked with a big grin on his face as he pulled his forensics book out of his locker

"He made me laugh with this drawing illustrating him falling out of bed!" Gage said as he walked past them. His locker was further down the hall than his two friends, he pulled out the note from his pocket and handed it to Joey, who burst out laughing the second he saw it. Gage hurried down the hall to his locker and made it back to them in record time.

"Hey this is good Rome," Joey complimented between laughs "did you really fall out of bed?"

"Yeah," Rome replied "I wasn't making that up," he tried not to sound defensive, but it had become a reflex lately, Joey grinned and held up his arms in mock surrender

"Chill Obi-Wan, I was just asking a serious question."

"Sorry,"

"So how did you fall out of bed? I thought it had railings." Joey asked

"It does." Rome said softly "it's kind of a long story, can I tell you guys at lunch? Please?" Gage and Joey exchanged a look, just as Kevin joined them

"Tell us what at lunch?" Kevin asked, holding his drumsticks for music, he began drumming on the lockers softly, risking a reprimand from Mrs. Porter who was just two rooms down.

"How I sprained my arm, I'll tell you guys what's really been going on, why I got so defensive and why I lied to you guys and what happened during Labor Day weekend. It's going to take more than a minute to tell and I'd really like to have some time to talk to you guys."

Gage looked at his watch

"We could meet at my place after school," he suggested, "mom's been asking about all of you guys coming over anyways."

"I can't," Rome said, "I'm kind of grounded."

His friends' eyes all went wide at the same time, Rome's dad grounding anyone was unheard of, even after the fight Rome got into the previous year where Castle had grounded Rome from his video games had only lasted a day before Castle caved and let Rome loose on good behavior and time served.

"Whoa, what the heck did you do?" Joey breathed

"Add it to the story," Rome explained "basically something really stupid,"

"Dude you better watch out, you're going to fall in my footsteps," Joey said grinned "did I tell you guys I got homework detention the other day?"

Rome, Gage, and Kevin all exchanged a look and shrugged. Rome felt a little bit better that his other two friends didn't know about Joey's most recent trouble-making scheme.

Joey was a good kid, but he found creative and amusing ways to get in trouble, usually, he dragged Kevin into whatever he was up too. Kevin, of course, tried to avoid it, but somehow always managed to get pulled in on the schemes.

"How the heck did you get homework detention?" Gage asked, "I didn't think we could still get it, what are they going to do, keep you in from the recess we don't get?"

"I'm still curious how he got this detention in the first place," Rome spoke up, waving his hands for his friends to continue. They had to be moving towards their classes in the next minute or so before the bell rang.

Joey's grin got bigger if that was possible.

"My guinea pig ate part of my English homework." Now the three boys exchanged a look and in unison burst out laughing.

"How the heck did Simon eat your English homework?" Rome asked between laughs. He couldn't even sign the question he was laughing so hard.

"My little sister let him loose when I was at soccer practice, he got into my backpack and gnawed through the material and the first thing he got was my English binder."

"Man that bites," Kevin snickered "did you get chewed out?" he added, "eat your own words?"

"Ah shaddup" Joey snapped even though he was still grinning "anyways mom forgot to call and let Mr. Corcoran know, so he thinks I just blew the assignment off."

"Is your mom going to call and let him know, I mean so you don't have to have detention?" Rome asked as they headed down the hall."

"She doesn't know that I got detention and she's working tonight at the hospital so she won't know until tomorrow. I still gotta suffer the consequences."

"What about your dad?" Gage asked pausing at the bubbler, he took a sip of water and looked back at his friends "can't he vouch for you?"

"Business trip in Atlanta," Joey explained, "I'm flying solo here."

"Anyway back to the original discussion, Rome yeah can you get the whole story in with lunch?" Kevin asked as he headed towards the music room.

Rome chewed the inside of his cheek thinking that over

"I think I can, at least the important parts." Rome paused "what about Todd?" He asked softly, him and Todd had art together, and he wasn't ready to face his friend there.

"Todd went homesick," Rob one of their classmates said as he followed Kevin into the music room. He had math and English with Todd, and they had math when Kevin, gage, Rome, and Joey had social studies because him and Todd were in a math class that was a little slower pace and had more one on one treatment which was what Todd really needed in math and English.

Rome always felt bad that him, Gage, Kevin, and Joey were all in the advanced placement classes for, but it never seemed to bother Todd, he said he liked the attention and the extra help he got.

"When did he go?" Joey asked

"Right before Mrs. Porter started class, he walked up to her told her he didn't feel good and asked to go to the nurse. He never came back and Mrs. Porter got all the classwork and the homework together and made a packet for his brother to take."

Kevin shrugged at his two friends from his seat and Gage, Joey and Rome returned the gesture. Joey's class met in the high school wing, so he waved goodbye and headed off, leaving Gage and Rome as they made their way down the opposite hall.

"Don't worry too much about it," Gage said with a grin as he headed towards his Spanish class, all the kids at Marlowe were required to take a language starting in first grade, typically they all started with Spanish and most stuck with it, Rome had started taking German with Todd in fourth grade and had decided to stay with that, but Gage had a real knack for Spanish and hadn't migrated out of it.

"Easier said than done," Rome muttered

"Well, instead of worrying about Todd try this, I heard Gabriella tell Michelle that we're having a pop quiz in math."

Rome made a face,

"Yep, that'll definitely work."

"See, told you." Gage finished with a grin, ducking into his classroom.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Despite his worry about Todd and the worry if him and Todd were still fighting, the rest of the day went pretty smoothly for Rome. Even with lunch, he felt comfortable talking to his friends about what had happened as much as he could.

He promised them he would be able to give better details, but they'd have to come over, explaining that it was something easier shown than talked about, which they all agreed, promising that when Rome was no longer grounded they'd all come over and get the whole story, even if they had to drag Todd along.

Alexis was pleasantly surprised to see how back to normal her brother was when he met her on the steps and they began their walk home.

"So I'm going to take a shot in the dark and guess you had a good day?" she asked as they waved to Michael, the doorman and headed towards the elevator.

"Just a little bit," Rome replied, grinning

"Just out of curiosity, what's changed?"

"I talked to my friends, sorta."

"What do you mean sorta?" Alexis asked

"Todd kinda blew me off, then he went homesick." Rome made quotes in the air and Alexis pushed him, she hated when he did that and he knew it, because he was grinning even wider.

"Maybe he actually was," she replied, trying to be diplomatic

"Maybe, but I doubt it." Rome said with a shrug, he dug into his pocket to get his key when they reached the top "anyways, Gage passed me a note before social studies started apologizing for him and saying they wanted to talk, Kevin and Joey were on board with it too. So…at lunch we talked."

"How much do they know now?" Rome unlocked the door to the loft and dropped his backpack and jacket on the floor near the closet, heading straight for the kitchen. "Rome!" Alexis exclaimed, he stopped and looked at her curiously as she pointed to his discarded items "come on,"

"Oops," he said shrugging "force of habit," all Alexis could do was roll her eyes at that. "They know basics," he explained picking up the items, his jacket went into the closet and he dumped his backpack on the counter, this action received another eye roll from his sister, but she didn't say anything, at least it wasn't on the floor. "I told them it would be a lot easier to go into detail away from school. So when dad ungrounds me I was going to ask him if they could spend the night."

"Rome, how long do you honestly think dad will keep you housebound? I give it a day, tops."

"Good point," he said with a grin, he pulled out a juice box from the fridge and grabbed his backpack.

"Are you actually going to start on your homework?"

"Yeah, maybe," he replied, his grin getting wider "or maybe I'm going to go fight off hordes of the undead."

"I think homework would be a better plan." Alexis looked at her watch "speaking of which, I've got math club,"

"Aren't you also going out with Owen tonight?" Rome asked with a knowing smile, "guess that means I'm on my own huh?"

"Till gram comes home,"

"Dad must be really getting into this bet at the precinct." Alexis shuddered "what?"

"It's creepy, even for dad,"

"A little creepy yes, but if the murder gets solved that's all that matters isn't it?"

"I guess, still creepy though." Alexis paused and hugged him "are you sure you're going to be okay by yourself?"

"Alexis I'm ten years old, I'll be eleven in a few months,"

"Five months is not a few months,"

"close enough." She kissed the top of his head "argh, Alexis no kissing!" he grumbled swatting her away, she chuckled, gathered her bag and jacket and headed to the door.

'See you later,' she signed.

Rome waved and grinned as soon as she closed the door. He may be stuck inside, but he was going to have fun with it and that meant three things, soda, chips, and playing Left4Dead on his dad's big screen.

x-x-x-x-x


	10. Chapter 10

Even though it was still early Rome fell asleep playing his video game. He has realized as his game was loading that playing it one-handed was not exactly conducive or realistic for that matter. So he slipped the sling off and tried to be careful how he moved his shoulder. Luckily the controllers had a southpaw feature that Rome used anyways but it just made it easier to know his good arm would be the one using the most motion.

He put the game on expert and put it on his favorite level. He loved the level where you got to walk through an abandoned tunnel, crawl through the sewers which were loaded with zombies, face a train yard where a tank or a witch could be lurking around each corner, and the town with buildings to explore.

But Rome only made it to the second safe house of the game before he crashed. Only 45 minutes into the game, he was just so exhausted even though he really didn't know why, he even slept through his father coming home unexpectedly.

Castle walked into the loft, he had to grab a few things for the bet and to check on the kids. He knew Alexis had her math club and then her date with Owen, so he knew Rome would be home by himself for a few hours until Martha got home.

Beckett was running financials on their victim, still completely oblivious to the bet which Castle was determined to keep from her. Even though Rome was doing better, Castle still wanted to keep a watchful eye on him, but at the same time, Castle wanted to show Rome that he still trusted him, that he could be allowed to stay home by himself.

"Hey, Doc?" Castle called walking through the loft. It was just a habit to call out, but he didn't know if Rome could actually hear him or not. He was about to go upstairs to check Rome's room when he heard heaving sobbing coming from his office. "Rome?!" Castle exclaimed, darting towards his office, not recognizing the normal sound of a witch from a game both he and his son loved to play. He stopped short and chuckled, as the sound registered.

Rome was sacked out on his easy chair, the Xbox controller on his chest. On the screen it was playing the opening sequence for Left4Dead, two of the characters investigating the crying that Castle had heard, the witch on screen was sobbing.

Castle picked up the remote and turned the volume down, then picked up the game controller and turned off the system. Rome didn't move he was completely out and making the little sighing noises that Castle loved.

However, before Castle could be distracted by that he noticed the sling sitting on the floor. That made perfect sense, there was no way Rome would be able to play his game one-handed so Castle was not surprised that the sling hadn't lasted.

Carefully, he reached down and picked Rome up, carrying him carefully out of his office. He had just left the office when the front door opened, Martha waltzing in.

"Richard you're home darl-?" she stopped, spotting Rome in his father's arms "what is the matter with him?"

"Long day in the sixth grade I think," Castle replied with a grin "either that or he has finally grown bored of Left4Dead."

Martha sighed with relief

"Oh good, no more zombies. If I have to hear that horrid noise those creatures make any more I may turn into one of those things, the ones that oh, what does he call those special ones? The truck, smokestack, whatever those things are."

Castle's grin grew

"The special infected? And I think you mean the Tank and the Smoker." Castle guessed and Martha threw her hands up dramatically

"Yes, those horrid things. You may very well find me sitting on the floor sobbing like that banshee creature."

"I think you mean the witch."

"Whatever it is Richard. I don't know why you allow him to play that game in the first place."

"He likes it and it is pretty creative when you think about it. Besides, he's not the only one, I've enjoyed a zombie slaughter myself once in a while. Anyways, you might want to hold off transforming just yet mother."

"And why is that?"

Castle looked down at Rome, still sleeping in his arms. Gently and minding his arm, he put Rome down on the couch, he also was able to notice that Rome's hearing aids were MIA before he stood back up and looked at his mother, a mischievous grin on his face. He lowered his voice just in case Rome woke up or on the off chance that the reason his hearing aids weren't in, was because his hearing was doing okay for the time being.

"The creators of Left4Dead are releasing a new one in November, so you'll have other special infected to choose from."

"Not another one," Martha groaned

"Of course, and somehow I have no idea how Rome hasn't found out about it yet, so I'm hoping that'll stay true for the next few months so I can give it to him for Christmas and really surprise him."

"Well, maybe the creators will decide to do away with the witch or at least make the zombies less noisy. Do you know I heard that wailing the other night because your son had his game turned up so loud I was surprised no one else in the building could hear it?"

Castle nodded

"I know, he had the volume up when I came home too. The game does require listening for certain sounds and we just haven't found a way to scoot around the fact that he's really starting to have trouble hearing it."

"It does seem to be getting worse Richard."

"Dr. Winters did say two years tops. Just didn't think we'd be on the shorter end of that spectrum" Castle sighed "I made an appointment for him next week,"

"Why?"

"You said it yourself, Rome's hearing seems to be getting worse, I think we've all noticed it." he paused and ran his hand down his face "I have a sinking feeling that everything that happened may have something to do with it."

Martha looked down at her grandson, she reached over and brushed his hair back and was relieved that he sighed a little and curled up a little tighter, at least he was back to normal in that aspect.

"what do you mean? Do you think the seizures did it?"

"It could be a combination mother, the seizures, the infection in his foot, the stress, how weak he still is, not to mention it was absolutely freezing in that factory, whatever it is, none of it helped. It sped us up our time at least I'm sure it did. We won't know until Dr. Winters sees him."

"Don' wanna go to doctor dad," Rome's voice caught their attention, both looked at him quickly and smiled, though both were wondering how long Rome had been awake and therefore how much had he really heard. Rome looked up at them and rubbed his eyes with one hand as he looked at his grandmother and father.

"Hey Doc," Castle said with a smile, "thought you'd never wake up. I was afraid I was going to have to get drastic and order some Chinese food, Chow Fun always seems to catch your attention,"

Rome grinned and shook his head

"No, I'm okay," he yawned "I didn't even realize I fell asleep,"

"You did, right in the middle of your game." Castle replied "which by the way Doc, you had the volume up pretty high when I walked in. Is your hearing doing okay?"

Rome looked down at his hands for a second and shook his head

"It was okay at school and even when Lex and I got home, but when I turned the Xbox on I couldn't hear it, not until I turned the volume up a little."

"A little kiddo? You had it at 90."

"Oops,"

"It's okay, but I was serious about Dr. Winters, I think it might be a good idea to go see him anyways. With everything that's been going on, he's the only one who hasn't seen you-" Castle left the sentence unfinished none of them needed him to finish it.

"I know dad," Rome looked around "what are you doing home anyways I thought you had a bet going, or did Detective Beckett catch you guys?"

Castle chuckled

"I figured I swing home and check on you. Not that I don't trust you Rome, I, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Not that you wouldn't be okay, you're ten you're old enough to stay home by yourself."

Rome and Martha exchanged a look and grinned at one another as Castle went on a for a good few minutes trying to defend without really needing too, why he had come home to check on Rome.

When he finally noticed their grin he paused and started laughing.

"You done dad?" Rome asked and Castle nodded

"Sorry, kiddo."

"It's okay, really dad it is." Rome paused and grinned "so did Detective Beckett figure out that you guys are betting on the murder?"

"No, my little minion,

"Dad, do you have to go back to the precinct tonight?" Rome asked

"Beckett said she would call me she had a lead. So I get to hang out here at home with my favorite ten-year-olds if that's okay with you Doc?"

Rome nodded

"Course it's okay dad!" He exclaimed, "when I finish my homework we can play left4dead!"

"Sounds good to me, I've been feeling good. Come, my little minion, I'll make some dinner, I don't know about you, but I'm starving." Castle said with a grin, he knelt down allowing Rome to climb onto his back.

It was tough for Rome to hang on with one arm and he almost forgot about his injured arm as he went to hug his dad's neck.

"Ow," he whimpered shifting the arm wrong.

"Careful Doc," Castle said, even though Rome couldn't hear him and certainly couldn't read his lips Rome felt the vibrations of his dad's voice and knew what he had said "I am dad,"

Castle carried Rome into the kitchen and gently deposited him on the counter.

"Well my boys," Martha called walking over to them "I must fly again, don't wait up for me."

Rome and Castle exchanged a look, both father and son grinning identical grins

"Fly mother?" Castle asked, "are you finally leaving the nest?"

Rome who was still half awake and not able to hear the gentle sarcasm in his father's voice looked at both his grandmother and his father in horror

"No gram come on please don't leave, we'd miss you too much!"

Martha chuckled and walked over to her grandson hugging him tightly.

"Oh my darling I'm not leaving for good, but can I just say how sweet it is that you don't want me to leave?" She looked at Castle "and I'm not leaving the nest funny man." She looked at both of them "the director I have been in contact with that play invited a few of us out for drinks. I won't be too late."

"Worried about your curfew mother?" Castle asked pulling out a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese.

"Quite the comedian tonight hm Richard?" She paused and kissed the top of Rome's head and kissed Castle on the cheek "Rome don't let your father keep you up to late playing that silly zombie game understand?"

Rome nodded and Castle made a face

"I won't gram," Rome replied with a grin

"Be good my darlings!" Martha called as she gathered her coat and purse and headed for the door. Castle leaned over the counter and watched the door close behind her, he turned back to Rome and grinned

'she's gone Doc' he signed 'go get your copies of Ghost Hunters, I'm feeling a paranormal marathon how about you kid?'

Rome nodded

"Sounds good to me." He hopped off the counter "make sure you make that soupy dad!" he added gesturing to the boiling pot. "Extra milk." He bolted up to his room and was back in record time with his season four box set of Ghost Hunters. Rome and his dad loved all the paranormal shows, but Ghost Hunters and Ghost Wranglers were their favorites and season four of Ghost Hunters was Rome's favorite.

Castle looked up at Rome and grinned, he put his fingers to his temple and closed his eyes in contemplation for a second,

"I'm sensing Dr. Watson that you have brought down Season Four, containing a certain disc that will provide us with the Iron Island episode that occurs in Buffalo New York."

Rome's grin got wider

"Pretty good dad," Rome exclaimed holding up the case

"Thanks, kiddo."

Rome leaned closer to the stove and sniffed, Castle had poured the pasta into the pot by now and was stirring the macaroni and it made Rome's stomach growl with anticipation.

"That smells great dad,"

"It does doesn't it?" Castle replied "so Dr. Watson, you must have had a great day at school."

"Yeah pre-" Rome paused and looked up at his dad "what makes you think I had a great day?" he asked

"Kiddo, one and probably most important, I'm your father, it's in my job description to know when you've had a good day or a bad day. Two I've been writing mystery novels longer than you and your sister have been alive, you're not the only one in this family who is good at reading people, where do you think you inherited that from? Mom?"

"Good point." Rome said with a nod "what's three?"

"And three Doc, you're in such a good mood even after falling asleep while playing a video game that I figured you must have had a good day." Castle paused and poured the macaroni into a strainer, he ran some cold water on it and cooled it off before handing a piece of the pasta to Rome for his approval. "Good?" he asked and Rome nodded, giving his dad a thumbs up.

"Perfect,"

"Anyways. Come on kiddo, I want to hear about this great day."

"It was pretty standard dad, the main thing was I think I've finally smoothed things over with the guys."

"Really Rome? That's not standard, that's awesome. Want to tell me what you did to calm the storm?"

"I took you and gram's suggestion and buried the machete."

Castle chuckled

"I think you mean hatchet Doc." Rome shook his head "not hatchet?"

"Hatchet sounds boring, make it a machete and it's cooler."

"Right," Castle said with a smile, he added in the powder cheese, some butter, and milk to the pasta and stirred everything together. "Extra soupy right?" Rome nodded "okay so you guys all buried the machete, that's great."

"Can I be ungrounded this weekend and have them sleepover?"

Castle nodded and smiled

"I suppose you could say that your sentence has been served." He said thoughtfully as he dished out the macaroni into two separate bowls and handed Rome a spoon. "Extra soupy as promised."

"Thanks, Dad,"

"Anyways, if you'd like to have your friends over on Friday you're more than welcome." Castle picked up his bowl "the usual suspects, Todd, Kevin, Joey, and Gage?" Rome's shoulders fell a little bit and he didn't look at his dad for a few seconds. Castle reached forward and tapped Rome's shoulder, he put his bowl of pasta down and signed 'kiddo what's the matter? I thought you said everything was okay?'

Rome chewed his lip a bit, then sighed before he started signing, his arm hurt a little bit, but he ignored it, there were times when it felt better to sign than to speak, besides he was pretty sure the doctor was just being over-cautious and his arm was actually fine.

'Kevin, Joey, and Gage are good,'

Castle put a hand up when he saw Rome wincing a little;

"Doc, don't sign if your arm is still hurting or at least use one hand if you can.'

Rome nodded

'It's okay, it feels a lot better than it did yesterday."

Castle rolled his eyes and signed 'yeah right'

'Anyways we talked and they understand based on what I told them. They still want to know more, but they're willing to wait till we can do it like here or somewhere private.'

'Okay, that explains them, which is great kiddo, but I noticed Todd wasn't on that list or did I miss the sign for him?'

Rome shook his head

'Todd blew up at me…Again.' He paused 'he thinks I'm still lying, that I making everything up, even my arm. I don't get it, dad,'

'Did you try talking to him?"

"I was going to, he went home sick after second period, never got the chance."

Castle reached over and ruffled Rome's hair

"Todd will come around kiddo, you know he will."

Rome nodded

"Yeah, that's what Gage said,"

"But aside from that, I'm glad you guys are talking." Castle said,

"Yeah, it's a start I guess," Rome replied

"It'll be okay Doc. Like you said, it's a start and everyone has to start somewhere." he turned to the fridge and pulled out the carton of milk, pouring Rome a glass before taking one for himself.

"Yeah!" Rome exclaimed, grabbing his bowl of macaroni and glass of milk and heading towards his dad's office, the box set tucked under his arm.

Castle turned the Xbox back on and took the box set from Rome's arm and slid the Left4Dead disc out and put the Ghost Hunters disc in.

"Just out of curiosity Rome, don't you have homework? Or has this school that I'm paying top dollar for, so you and your sister can get a great education decided to do away with homework?" He asked as Rome settled down in a squishy chair with his glass of milk and macaroni and cheese, he didn't answer his dad though. "Doc?" Castle turned and grinned, Rome was clearly trying not to laugh, which told his father that even though he probably didn't hear the actual question, Rome still knew what his dad was saying, just from experience. 'Dude, are you really going to play the deaf card?' Castle asked with a grin and Rome looked up.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said with his grin getting wider.

"Cute. One episode then homework Doc."

Rome nodded and gave his dad the sign for 'okay,' before they settled in to enjoy one of their favorite episodes of Ghost Hunters.

x-x-x-x

Rome was half asleep when he felt the floorboards creak on the staircase. He sat up in bed and put his hand to the floor, feeling the vibrations as someone walked up the steps, clearly trying to be as quiet as possible. He glanced at his watch, it was only half-past nine. He wasn't one to go to bed that early, he usually fought tooth and nail going to bed or even to sleep anytime before eleven because he was such a night owl, but even after his quick nap, he was exhausted. It was like all the stress had washed out of him.

After watching Ghost Hunters with his dad, he had settled at the kitchen counter to start his homework. He had done most of it in study hall which he had as his second to last period of the day, but he hadn't gotten to read the next chapter of the Westing Game, which his class had started and answered the questions about it. But by the time eight-thirty rolled around, Rome was feeling tired again and after fighting it, Castle sent Rome to bed. He went up after his son, tucked him in and bid him goodnight before shutting his door and heading down to his office.

Rome rubbed his eyes and slid out of bed, opened his door a crack, just in time to see his sister's door close. He glanced at his watch again just to be sure he had looked at the right time. He knew Alexis had promised to be home by nine because it was a school night, but even so, a night out celebrating Owen's birthday at Serendipity should have kept his sister out to at least ten, something wasn't right.

Rome stood in the hall as still as he could and could feel the vibrations of his sister moving around her room and felt for his father to make a move up the stairs to check on them. His dad had said he was going to try and get some writing done, which usually meant he would put on his noise-canceling headphones and completely zone out.

Rome knew he was really focused on that case him and Detective Beckett were working on, the one they were apparently in competition with Detectives Ryan and Esposito over, the one that Detective Beckett apparently didn't know anything about. That meant his dad would be compiling all the evidence they had and trying to figure out if they missed anything with the case and he'd probably be at it all night, just to win the bet, Rome thought it was hilarious how competitive his dad could get.

It made Rome wonder if his dad had even noticed Alexis had come in early, or in this case on time. He walked over to his sister's door and knocked twice, paused for ten Mississippi's seconds, then knocked three times, it was their secret or not so secret code from when they were little. Rome couldn't always hear someone replying come in, but he could feel the vibrations well enough through the floor so his knocks told Alexis that it was him at the door and she would knock on the floor to respond.

Two knocks meant come in, three knocks meant she was on the phone but he could come in, four knocks said give her a few minutes which would then be followed by two knocks when she was all set, and five knocks said not now go away, in the six years they had been using that code, Alexis had only used the four knocks twice.

This time she didn't respond at all and Rome knew something really was wrong unless his sister had randomly forgotten something they had come up with together and was, in fact, saying 'come in' which he could hear, but he didn't think was the case.

"Lex," he whispered as loud as he dared hoping that his volume was, in fact, a whisper "Lex come on it's me, my hearings are done for the night so I can't hear if you said come in or not. You usually knock back when I knock, look is everything okay?"

At first there was no response, and Rome wondered if she had just decided to go to bed without answering him, another piece to the unusual puzzle. He turned to go back to his room when he felt the vibrations of knocking, two knocks to be specific.

He slowly pushed the door open and poked his head in, Alexis was sitting on her bed looking at her computer screen, she looked up and gestured for him to come in.

"Sorry," she said giving the sign for 'I'm sorry'

"Is everything okay?" he asked carefully, moving closer to her bed, he sat down in her desk chair and scooted it over to the bed.

"Not really,"

"Something happened tonight huh?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, for one thing, remember what Uncle Steven always says and none of the other authors will listen to him? I kill at poker and besides joking aside I know you." He paused "so what happened?"

"Can I ask you a question first?" Rome nodded "okay and don't take this personally okay Rome?"

He grinned and signed

'Never do,'

"Right. Okay, how come guys can be so clueless?"

"Are you asking me this because I'm a guy or because I'm clueless? Or because I'm both?"

"You are not clueless, I just mean…" Alexis sighed, "I just." She tried signing, but wasn't sure where exactly she was going. "you're still a kid, you haven't hit the teenage boy clueless stage thankfully.

"Lex, it's okay, don't worry about it. I was kidding." He paused "I don't know about high school guys, even though I've seen some of my friends' older brothers and can get a pretty good preview for what my future looks like, but I've seen enough of it in the middle school wing, eighth graders? Total space cases. But as far as us sixth graders go, we're still at the kid stage, so not entirely clueless yet. One of the downsides to being the youngest in your grade is watching as your friends creep closer to that stage and know it's only a matter of time before you follow in their footsteps."

"Are you talking about Todd?"

Rome shrugged

"it's the only explanation I can come up with over why he's being so, such a…" Rome paused and gave the sign for 'brat' he took his hands, curved his pointer fingers near his head like they were devil horns and pulled away quickly. "Anyways, that's not important right now, I want to know what happened, what did Owen do?"

"We were at Serendipity, things were going pretty well, I felt like we were actually back where we had been like the connection was there again. We were about to sing happy birthday when this girl came running up to our table and was all over Owen. She was so excited to have run into him and how they went to camp together and he was her first crush. She went on and on about it, it was ridiculous."

"She knew Owen?" Rome asked, "how did she know him?"

"Like I said Rome they apparently went to camp together."

"When?"

Alexis looked at him confused

"Why?"

Rome shrugged

"Curiosity, humor me,"

"She said third grade. The thing that made it worse was that Owen didn't remember her, but he spent the entire taxi ride back talking non-stop about how amazing it was to run into her and what a small world it was." Alexis paused and looked at Rome "I'm sorry Rome," she looked at the clock "I woke you up didn't I?"

"I was crashing but I was still awake. I figured there had to be a reason you were home so early."

"Since when did I become the one who has to be under surveillance?"

Rome shrugged

"You're not, just…come on Lex you know it's my job."

"I'm the older sibling here, it's my job to look out for you."

"Age is just a number, you're my sister I'll always look out for you." Rome grinned "which means I'll be interrogating Owen tomorrow."

"Don't you dare Roman." Alexis reprimanded

"Fine, I won't talk to Owen. Can I ask you something about the girl though?"

Alexis looked at him suspiciously

"Why?"

"Trust me?" Alexis sighed "please?"

"Fine, what do you want to know?"

"Her name and the name of the camp?"

"Er, just for the record Rome I am confused and not enjoying the confusion, but after the night I've had I'm at the point where I'm not even going to ask for details into your thought process here. Her name is Thalia and she said they met at Camp Chumash in third grade. That's all I know."

Rome nodded

"Okay."

"You know what changed my mind. What are you plotting Rome?"

"Trust me." he leaned forward and kissed Alexis

'Yeah, that just makes me trust you completely.' Alexis signed and Rome shrugged grinning "you're not helping your case Rome."

'Night sis' Rome signed back and bolted back to his room. He dove under the covers and snuggled deep in his bed, as comfortable as he was, he couldn't help but focus on what his sister had gone through with Owen and how he was going to get some answers for his sister.

x-x-x-x

At school the next day, Rome didn't waste any time. Todd was sitting at his desk pretending to read, but Rome could see he was just staring at the same page. No one else was in the room yet, it was just the two of them, which partly made what he had to do easier, but at the same time he'd really rather have some back up.

Todd looked up when he heard Rome's footsteps, but after a quick glare went back to staring at the book he wasn't reading. Rome groaned, it was bad enough that Todd was mad at him in the first place, but the fact he wasn't going to let it go just made it even worse. Rome hated to do it, but he was about to play the guilt card.

"Hey," he said walking closer to Todd, who looked up and looked back down again, Rome could see his lips moving, but couldn't actually read them, so he had no idea what Todd had just replied. He had woken up to complete silence and had wondered if his dad was right and his hearing was going faster, but that was the last thing on his mind. There was only one person who might have some information on that Thalia girl, Todd's older brother Bryce. He had known Owen a long time going back to when they were three or four years old. Something about a playgroup they were part of.

Of course, neither Rome nor Todd realized it the previous year when Owen started doing his volunteer time at lunchtime, looking out for Rome and his friends. It wasn't until Todd mentioned it to his brother.

Finally, after a few seconds Todd looked up and Rome was able to see his lips as he said

"What do you want Rome?" he looked his friend over "I see the sling is gone," he added and Rome rolled his eyes.

"You know what, you can stay mad at me over something stupid as long as you want Todd I really don't care. I just wanted to ask you for a favor, for my sister." Rome saw Todd's curiosity get peaked, even though he was clearly trying to remain as uninterested as possible. "You know how Alexis is dating Owen? And you said your brother has known Owen for a long time?"

"Yeah, so?" Todd asked, "what's your point Rome?"

"My point is, can you ask your brother if he knows someone named Thalia and if she went to Camp…" Rome paused he wasn't even sure how to say the name of the camp, he wasn't even sure if he could even spell it. Todd looked up at him quickly

"Camp Chumash?" Todd asked surprised

Rome tapped his ears

"Sorry, hearing's gone,"

Todd sighed and gave a slight smile as he fingerspelled the camp's name. Rome nodded recognizing the spelling.

"That's it?" Todd asked

"Yeah, just as Bryce about her, she kind of ruined Alexis' night out with Owen and I want to make sure my sister doesn't get hurt."

Todd nodded,

"Glad I could help, I mean, I'd hate to see Alexis get hurt too."

"Thanks, Todd," Rome said softly signing as he went, he started to turn to head to his desk for homeroom when Todd reached forward and grabbed his sleeve forcing him to turn around. "What?"

'I'm sorry,' Todd signed 'really, really sorry,'

"It's okay." Rome replied, "I would've been the same way in your shoes." He paused "look my dad said I could have you guys over on Friday for a sleepover. You kinda weren't talking to me so you missed the initial invite, but I swear you'll know pretty much everything then if you guys are sure you want to know."

Todd nodded

"Rome you're my best friend man, of course, I want to know." Todd grinned a little, he closed his book and looked at the clock before whipping out his cellphone. Rome's eyes went wide as he checked towards the door

"Todd what the heck are you doing, you're going to get in trouble."

"Cover me," Todd replied as he started texting rapidly, when he finished he slid his phone back into his pocket a risky move since no one was technically supposed to have their cellphone on them during school, least of all the middle schoolers.

"Okay, so what was that all about?" Rome asked

"I texted Bryce, he should get back to me by lunch and let me know about this Thalia girl."

Rome grinned wide

"Nice,"

Todd pretended to rub shine his fingernails on his shirt

"I know I rock, it's okay."

"Doofus," Rome shot back as he headed to his seat. The final wave of relief had washed over him, Todd wasn't mad at him anymore, now he just had to worry about the entire story coming out and how he was going to handle that. But for now, he wasn't worried about that, he was more focused on him and his friends playing detective regarding Owen and this Thalia girl.


	11. Chapter 11

Todd wasn't waiting for them when Kevin, Joey, Gage, and Rome walked into the cafeteria at lunch. Todd tended to beat everyone to lunch so it was odd that he wasn't there and Rome wondered for a split second if he hasn't been faking sick the previous day and really wasn't feeling good.

They had just gotten their lunches and were sitting down at their usual table when Todd came running in, a huge grin on his face.

He usually brought lunch so he threw his lunchbox on the table huffing and puffing from his apparent jog through the school.

"Where the heck have you been?" Joey asked around his peanut butter sandwich. "never thought I'd see the day you'd be late for lunch."

Todd held up his hand and piled up his meal, organizing it and debating what to eat first, eventually settling on his gogurt. He slurped the yogurt from the plastic pouch and grinned at his friends who all exchanged a confused look.

"Todd," Kevin said loudly dropping his chicken nuggets so that he could sign for Rome. "Will you stop slurping and talk to us?"

"Fine, fine. I was down in the high school wing talking to my brother." He looked right at Rome and finished off the gogurt in one final slurp. "I asked him about camp Chumash"

Gage, Kevin, and Joey exchanged a look of pure confusion, and Rome winced, he had forgotten to clue them in on what was going on.

He quickly gave it to them in cliff notes style or as his dad always said 'the Castle notes' style

Like Rome, his friends were protective of Alexis, seeing her as their own big sister, well except for Kevin who'd had a huge crush on Alexis since he was six. But all of them were equally protective of her, the added bonus was being able to act as detectives or spies trying to solve a case, just like Rome's dad was doing with the NYPD.

So after Rome had clued his friends in on the Owen Thalia situation they looked at Todd to hear details.

He signed as he went because his mouth was now full of tuna fish and while Kevin, Gage, and Joey could hear and understand him, Rome couldn't, so between Todd's random signs and Gage interpreting Rome was able to follow along.

"So Bryce said he remembers Camp Chumash," Todd explained Gage started to fingerspell the name but paused clearly unsure exactly how to spell the camp name correctly.

"Chu?" he started to say "how the heck do you spell that?"

"Don't worry about it," Rome spoke up "I've got that much."

"Anyways he said that when they were at camp there was no one named Thalia and he's very sure about that, he said there was a girl named Trisha, but there was no Thalia."

"No Thalia," Rome repeated unable to keep the shock of his face.

"No Thalia,"

"Is he sure though, I mean how small is this camp?" Kevin asked, "is it like Cheers where everybody knows your name?"

"What's Cheers?" Todd asked

"Some TV show, about this bar, the theme song has a strong emphasis on the fact that everyone knows your name," Kevin explained. Everyone looked at him and started chuckling, he shrugged "give me a break my parents are fans of it and they watch at least one episode from their box set every night, I had the theme song stuck in my head for a week once and when we went up to Boston to visit my grandparents? My parents dragged us to the actual restaurant from the show."

"Anyways," Rome spoke up, for once being the member of the group wrangling everyone back to the topic at hand. He took a bite of his own chicken nuggets and signed 'Kevin does have a point, how is Bryce sure that there wasn't a Thalia at the camp?'

"Dude, you've met my brother, he talks to everyone, he knows everyone. He was even more like that when he was a kid. He knew everyone at that camp, especially the girls, if there was a Thalia there, Bryce would be the first one to welcome her."

"So the moral of this story children is the fact that Rome…your sister's boyfriend has some creepy stalker chick," Joey said

"So it would appear," Rome replied sighing

Todd's grin got bigger

"But wait there's more." He exclaimed

"Is it just me or is he like one of those late-night infomercial guys right now?" Rome asked, grinning.

Gage, Joey, and Kevin all returned the grin and held up their hands giving the sign for a little bit.

"Funny," Todd replied, "do you want to hear it or not?"

"Are you going to throw in a second bit of information for free if we call in the next two minutes?" Joey asked, "And use our 'enter random credit card company here', to get our maximum amount of the deal?" Kevin asked

"Clearly we all watch way too much TV" Rome spoke up "but come on Todd spill,"

"Anyways Bryce spoke to his buddy Jim, he went to camp too and said that his girlfriend now, her best friend's name is named Thalia." Todd's face went serious for a second

"I sense a but coming" Gage spoke up

Todd nodded

"But, this Thalia girl never went to Camp Chumash with them."

"No way," Gage, Kevin, and Joey breathed. Rome didn't say anything, he thought this over for a few seconds.

"So if she didn't go to camp with them, how the heck does she know Owen?" Rome said softly "And more importantly, why would she say she knew him?"

All four of his friends exchanged a look and shrugged, none had an explanation that wasn't stalker creepy like.

"Rome do you remember what Lexis said Thalia's last name was?" Todd asked looking at his phone, while still managing to eat his sandwich and sign all at the same time.

Rome shook his head, both in regards to the question and to Todd's multitasking ability.

"She didn't say, I don't think she knew. Anyways the only description I have of her is she has big teeth apparently."

Now everyone looked at each other confused before Kevin burst out laughing loudly.

"Big teeth? Like what we talking about here, Jaws or Killer Bunny?" He asked and Rome shrugged

"Maybe she's got a huge overbite like Pugsley," Joey pointed out referring to his grandmother's pug, who was the sweetest dog and very friendly and would take turns sleeping on top of each of the boys when they slept over Joey's. The problem was he had a really obvious overbite so much so that his two large canine teeth jetted out of his mouth ridiculously, making him look like a vampire pug.

Two Halloween previous they had even dressed him up as Dracula Dog, much to Joey's grandmother's displeasure.

"I don't think anyone can have an overbite worse than Pugsley, but who knows maybe this Thalia girl does." Kevin pointed out, curled his upper lip, and tried to imitate Pugsley. "I vant to lick your face!"

"Doesn't Bryce's friend Jim know Thalia's last name?" Gage forever the voice of reason and forever keeping his friends on track and focused spoken up.

"Well yeah, but I thought it would be cooler if we did the detective work," Todd admitted and everyone nodded laughing a bit. "I was going to google her during study period." Todd added, "see exactly what we're dealing with here."

When lunch ended, the boys parted ways heading for their fifth-period classes. It wasn't until last period, homeroom that they were able to meet back up and hear what Todd had managed to dig up during his google search.

He was grinning wide when Rome and Gage walked in from their lockers, but wouldn't say anything until Kevin and Joey joined them.

"Well?" Rome asked

"I googled her, then I checked Facebook."

"You have a Facebook account? Since when?" Joey asked

"I used Byrce's, he thinks he's some kind of genius with his password, it's not that hard to erm, infiltrate his account." Todd explained,"'sides, my dad said I can sign up if I get at least two A's on my report card and I get a computer for Hanukkah and mom's been really hinting that that's a possibility."

"So what did you find out?" Rome asked

"I found Thalia, she doesn't go here, but she does go to Devonshire Prep over in midtown."

Rome thought this over

"So she doesn't go to our school, but she just happens to be at the same restaurant at the same time that Owen, the focus of her obsession is out for a birthday dinner with my sister?" he muttered "coincidence, I think not."

"So it would seem," Todd replied "sorry bro."

"What are you going to do?" Gage asked Rome as they checked their homework and wrote it in their agendas, waiting for the afternoon announcements to come on.

"Tell Alexis the truth," Rome said with a sigh

"Do you think that's a good idea?" Kevin asked, "I mean, she's either going to be angry or hurt."

"She's my sister, I have to tell her at least what we figured out and let her draw her own conclusions." Rome paused "I'm tired of keeping stuff from everyone." He looked at his friends "it's not worth the stress and the hurt it causes everyone, trust me."

Todd tapped his pencil against his forehead for a second thinking this over.

"Well, there is something we could try, if you guys are up for it." He said thoughtfully. Rome, Gage, Kevin, and Joey exchanged a look

"I'm a little afraid," Gage admitted and the others nodded

"Hey, have I ever steered you guys wrong?" Todd asked, pretending to be offended by his friends' doubt.

"Lately?" Joey asked, "or in the past few months?"

"Funny,"

"Ignore them," Rome spoke up "what's your plan, Todd?"

"I looked it up online, Devonshire gets out a full twenty minutes after us," Todd explained

"So?" Rome asked

"So, how about we go be real undercover agents and spy on her."

Rome looked over at Gage who was clearly preparing his 'I don't think that's a good idea' speech. Joey and Kevin, however, spoke up before he could

"That'll be so totally cool! We can be real spies! Go undercover, like James Bond here!" they exclaimed at the same time

Rome grinned a little as the announcements came on, remembering his dad's adventure into Chinatown and looking for the Russian mobster, then he remembered he hadn't told his friends about that adventure, how his dad had gone undercover and played poker with real Russian mobsters, figuring out who was the real killer and bringing him to justice.

"Rome?" Kevin called poking him in the arm "dude, you're spacing out, everything okay?"

Rome's grin got wider and he nodded, before launching into the story about his dad and the Russian mob.

"That is so awesome!" Todd exclaimed, "did he get to wear a wire and everything?" Rome nodded "what about a disguise?"

"Uh," Rome thought that over "I don't think he wore a disguise, but he did get to wear a wire and got the bad guy to reveal himself, gave himself away by talking too much," Rome explained

"That is so sweet," Kevin exclaimed "seriously, I thought your dad working with the police was cool and all, but now he's going undercover to take down mobsters? I didn't think it was possible Rome, but your dad just skyrocketed even further up the cool ladder."

Rome nodded, then looked back at Todd

"So is that what you're thinking?" he asked and Todd nodded

"In a matter of speaking, look Bryce is going to hook us up with his buddy Dylan who knows Thalia, he goes to Devonshire too and can point her out."

Rome thought that over and shook his head

"I've got a better idea." He glanced at their homeroom teacher Mr. Tucker walked over to him. "Mr. Tucker, could Todd and I use the computer to look something up?"

"Sure kiddo," Mr. Tucker replied as he went back to grading papers, Rome grinned at his friends and nodded for Todd to follow him, but not before he ran back to his seat and grabbed his sketchbook out of his backpack.

They walked over to the row of computers and with Rome keeping watch, he nodded to the computer and gestured for Todd to resign into his brother's Facebook account. Once there, Todd pulled up Thalia's page and opened her profile picture.

"Is this what you were looking for?" Todd asked Rome didn't hear him though, he was still standing guard, but his hearing was fading fast and his hearing aids weren't doing the trick. So Todd reached over and flicked his arm to get his attention

"What?" Rome asked turning to his friend, Todd nodded at the computer screen

"Is this what you were looking for?" he repeated. Rome glanced at Mr. Tucker, before turning back to Todd and nodding, quickly, he pulled a pencil out of his pocket and quickly sketched Thalia's face. He nodded when he was done and Todd quickly logged out of the account, cleared the browser history, and shut the computer down, just as the announcements started.

The two boys headed back over to their friends as Mrs. Ray, the school secretary reminded the students of upcoming mid-term report cards for the middle school kids, the homecoming dance for the high schoolers, and other school-related announcements.

The five friends barely paid any attention to the loudspeaker (especially since one of them could barely hear it), instead, they looked at Rome's sketch of the target.

"Okay, so why was this necessary?" Joey asked "I mean, don't get me wrong, it's an awesome drawing Rome, very lifelike, but wouldn't it have been easier to just print her picture? Or other points, isn't Bryce's friend going to point her out to us? Why do we need a sketch?"

Gage looked like he agreed with Joey's legitimate question, but Kevin, Rome, and Todd all grinned

"Dude, this is what real detectives do, they don't have a printed photo of their suspect, they've got a police sketch artist that comes in and listens to the witnesses and draws what they describe," Rome explained

"Yeah, haven't you guys watched any cop shows?" Kevin asked

"I have," Gage replied still looking confused "but seriously I think you guys are getting way too into this," his friends exchanged another look

"Is there a such thing as too much into this?" Rome asked

"Right, dumb question," Gage admitted grinning.

Once the announcements were over the secretary began dismissing the classes by grade, starting with the preschool and kindergartens. They were always first, followed quickly by the first, second, and third graders.

Rome pulled out his phone and while being blocked by Kevin, texted his dad asking if it was okay he went with Todd, Todd's older brother Bryce, and the rest of his friends to get some ice cream. He promised he would go straight home after and promised no detours.

Of course, Castle got back quick, happy that his son was not only hanging with his friends again but that things were getting back to normal, he gave Rome full permission, as long as he clued his sister into his plan.

As soon as the sixth and seventh graders were released, the boys ran for the exit, of course getting stopped halfway by Mr. Haney, the seventh-grade algebra teacher for running in the halls.

After a quick apology and a promise to slow down in the future, the boys were back running towards the exit, after they were around the corner and out of sight of course.

They waited out on the steps for the high school kids to be released. Bryce was taking them to Devonshire prep and Rome wanted to let Alexis know he was going for "ice cream".

Ice cream was in the whole plan since there was a great little ice cream shop around the corner from Devonshire, but that was only if they got to the school in time, before dismissal. Unlike Marlowe, Devonshire didn't cater to all grades and was only for high school kids, so the dismissal time wouldn't take as long as it did for them.

The boys watched the front doors as the high school kids began to pour out. Alexis walked out of the building holding Owen's hand, Rome frowned and glared at the couple, in the last twenty-four hours he had gone from admiring and even liking Alexis' boyfriend to being very suspicious of him and ready to protect his older sister at all cost, no one messed with his sister.

"Look at that," he muttered "holding my sister's hand acting like everything is all good and in the meanwhile, he might be reconsidering a lost love from third grade."

"Dude," Todd spoke up nudging Rome's shoulder. "Don't forget what Bryce told me, Thalia never went to camp Chumash. She made that up,"

Rome nodded, he hadn't forgotten that part.

"But still," he said thoughtfully "what if he's falling for it, just because we know she didn't go and Bryce knows, doesn't mean that Owen is smart enough or even cares enough to question it." Rome argued he made a fist, "if that jerk does anything to hurt my sister he'll be sorry."

"Who will be sorry?" Bryce asked joining the group, Todd nodded at Owen and Alexis as she leaned up to kiss him and he returned the gesture, completely unaware of the group of sixth graders that were glaring at him and the one junior who looked just confused. "Okay, why is Owen going to be sorry?" Bryce whispered "is this all about that Thalia girl?"

"That and so much more," Todd explained, "short version is you know how you said that girl didn't go to camp with you guys and you were sure of that?"

"Uh, yeah, very sure there was no one named Thalia there, why all the sudden interest in a camp I went to in third grade? First Ding Bat's text this morning, now all these questions." He added nudging Todd in the shoulder "what are you guys involved in here?"

"She ambushed Alexis and Owen while they were at Serendipity last night for Owen's birthday, claiming she had a huge crush on him while they were at camp and how amazing it was to run into him after all these years."

Now Bryce understood the groups' annoyance, he glanced at Alexis who was walking their way after bidding Owen goodbye.

"I'm going to regret getting involved in this aren't I?' he asked and Todd grinned

"No way,"

"Yeah, that's not helping your case little brother." Bryce replied he looked over at Alexis "Hey Lex,"

"Hi Bryce, did you get ambushed by these guys?"

"Naw, I offered to walk them to 16 Handles for ice cream."

Alexis raised her eyebrow and Rome winced, he knew that look, now she was going to be suspicious…James Bond or Sherlock Holmes Bryce was not.

"16 Handles?" she repeated looking at Rome "that's all the way up in midtown, that's a thirty-five-minute walk."

"Seventeen with the subway," Joey spoke up as Kevin elbowed him in the ribs.

"Why are you guys going all the way there for ice cream?" Alexis asked Rome and he shrugged at first "Rome." She repeated

Rome looked at his friends who winced and then at Bryce who looked even more confused than before. He couldn't do it…he couldn't lie to Alexis.

"Fine…good ice cream is only part of it." Rome finally said, he reached into his backpack and pulled out the sketch, handing it to his sister.

"Tha-That's that Thalia girl!" she exclaimed, "where'd you get this Rome?"

"Todd found her…we…we're going to spy on her," Rome admitted

"Spy on her?" Alexis repeated, "why are you guys going to spy on her?"

"Uh, that might be partially my fault Alexis," Bryce spoke up, raising his hand. Alexis rolled her eyes at him,

"Bryce, my brother has a crazy enough imagination without help, our dad has taught him well, what did you do?"

"Thalia lied to you and Owen, Lex," Rome explained "she never went to camp with him, Bryce was there too, he said there was no Thalia at Camp Chu…Cah…" Rome frowned with frustration, he really didn't like this camp, the name being one main reason.

"Chumash," Bryce said, helping him out.

"Yeah, that place, thanks." He paused "so we're going to follow her and see what she's really up too."

Alexis had the same confused look on her face that had been steadily staying on Bryce's for the past few minutes

"She didn't know Owen?"

"If she did, it wasn't from camp," Bryce admitted, "not to brag or anything, but there wasn't anyone at that camp I didn't know." He paused "the rugrats here are blowing it way out of proportion when they say we're going to go spy on her, my buddy Dylan goes to the same school as her and he's going to meet us at 16 Handles and give us the low down on her. It's Sherlock Holmes and company here that are taking it to the 'we're going to spy and be detectives' level." Bryce finished, hoping that explained everything.

"Dr. Watson and company," Rome corrected and Bryce looked even more confused now. Todd chuckled and rolled his eyes at his brother

"Bry man, that's what Mr. Castle calls Rome, he's Dr. Watson,"

Bryce raised an eyebrow and looked at Alexis who nodded, confirming Todd's explanation.

"Right, okay, anyways, look Alexis sorry about going behind your back and doing this. Todd texted me this morning grilling me for information," Bryce paused "seriously how the heck did you not get in trouble? Don't you have Tucker for homeroom and science? How did he not catch you on your phone?"

"It helps to have a friend playing lookout," Todd explained,"'sides that's not the point, the point is this Thalia girl is up to something and we need to find out what!" Todd finished with a shout

Alexis looked at Rome who gave her a pleading look, before sighing

"You know what, Bryce I think I'm going with you guys if anything to keep my brother from doing something too much like our dad."

"I'll take that as a full-on compler…compla…" Rome frowned and gave the sign for compliment, a hand-clapping motion. Bryce's confused face grew even more so as he looked to his brother and Alexis for translation. Despite the fact that Rome and Todd had been friends for going on eight years, Bryce hadn't picked up much sign language, just some basics that Todd had taught him and that he had looked up online.

"Compliment," Gage explained "that was the sign for compliment,"

"I thought so," Bryce replied "but I wasn't sure, isn't the sign for school," he did a similar motion with his hands and Rome nodded.

"Similar," he replied "but not the same,"

"Come on, enough with the sign language lesson! We're going to be cutting it close guys!" Todd spoke up holding up his cell phone "let's go, let's go!" he added darting down the street, the rest of the group after exchanging a look, sighed and followed him.

As they neared the subway station that would take them to midtown, Rome slowed down a bit to walk with his sister.

"I'm sorry," he said signing as he went, Alexis looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you apologizing?"

"We kinda did this behind your back," he admitted "and we probably should've clued you."

"You did all of this because you were looking out for me?"

Rome nodded

"Yeah, I mean the whole spy/detective thing was definitely part of it, seriously a big part of it, but the main thing was I didn't want some stranger messing with your happiness."

"Oh Rome," Alexis cooed and hugged him close

"Leeeex!" Rome grumbled, pulling away from her to catch up with his friends.

x-x-x-x-x

"I can't believe that," Alexis repeated for the fourth time since leaving midtown, she was fuming and it was completely understandable. Rome had seen her mad and he'd seen her ready to kill someone, but this was a different mad, this was a mad that Rome was actually afraid his sister was going to turn around and head back to midtown to slug Thalia. In all honesty, Rome was surprised that his sister hadn't confronted Thalia, he was glad she hadn't but was surprised. Then again, it wasn't like she didn't have a group of bodyguards there to protect her, but that was probably why she didn't.

"It's creepy is what it is," Rome spoke up, as they turned towards their building, he took a final lick of his mint chocolate chip ice cream and finished off the cone. "Like super creepy stalker worthy creepy."

"But why would she lie? That's what I don't understand, okay so she didn't know Owen from camp, big deal, but why lie and say you knew him from camp when you didn't even go."

Rome shrugged

"Is this rhet…retro…" he groaned "Is this a question you want an answer to or is this another one that you really don't want an answer for?"

"Rhetorical Rome,"

"Ah, got it."

"I need to look into this more…" Alexis paused

"Lex, you know how you're always telling dad and I not to do something we're probably going to regret?"

"I do not always tell you guys that," Rome grinned and looked at her expectantly "not always," his grin widened "fine once in a while you guys decide something is a good idea and after a lot of thought and deliberation you guys figure out it's probably a bad idea." She paused "like the whole blow torch incident."

"Hey that would've worked."

"And burned down the loft while you were at it," Alexis replied nudging him. They headed up to the loft, Rome pulled out his keys and they headed inside.

"Minor detail, I know we would've found a way to prevent a fire."

"Right," Alexis paused as Rome threw his backpack onto the couch

"Anyways my point is, we dug into this whole thing because we wanted to know who she was and what she was up too, and it gave us the opportunity to be detectives or spies. But I really think you should let us keep digging." Alexis narrowed her eyes at him and sighed

"I can't promise anything Rome, I love that you're always trying to protect me and look out for me, but this falls under the category of something I need to do on my own."

"Right, we'll see how that goes," he replied

"Anyways," Alexis continued, "speaking of details, want to hear something that will make you laugh?"

"Of course, I'm always game for crazy stuff you know that. Even if I know you're changing the subject."

"I am not,"

Rome grinned

"You are too,"

Alexis returned the grin

"I am not," she paused "we're not getting into this kind of argument, I've played this part, I know how it ends,"

Rome's grin got wider

"Do not,"

"I do t-" she started to say and realized he was pulling her back into to the never-ending 'am not, are to, did not, did to,' type argument "Anyways. I ran home during study period today, I though Paige and Lauren wanted to meet up after school to study for that French test, but I found out they couldn't. Anyways, when I got home dad was here."

"Okay?" Rome asked, not sure why that would make him laugh. "last time I checked it's his loft too." He grinned a little

"He was in his office,"

"So?" Rome waved his hand gesturing for Alexis to continue, wondering where his sister was going with this. She smiled and was clearly trying not to laugh

"He had grams' dress and was holding it up to himself as if he was modeling it, to see if it would fit at a later date."

Now Rome looked at his sister in confusion as he laughed

"Why?" he asked and Alexis shrugged

"I have no idea, I decided I didn't want to know."

Rome thought it over, he chewed on his lip as he thought long and hard, trying to come up with a scenario that made sense, then slowly he began to grin

"I may have a hy…hyp…hyper…" he frowned at the word, but continued anyways "an educated guess,"

"Er, do I want to know?"

"Do you remember when dad got into that argument with Mr. Patterson over who was more popular, Derrick Storm or Alex Cross?"

Alexis nodded

"Of course, the argument got so bad Mr. Patterson wouldn't come to the poker games for like three months."

"And remember how they settled it?"

"Uncle Stephen and Mr. Connelly, they came up with an idea."

"Right to hold a vote, ask readers to vote for who they felt was the better character, they could do it either online or at their local bookstore."

"Right, then dad came up with a bet to go along with it." Alexis paused "I think I blocked out the details of the bet," she admitted "I don't remember anything about it, do you?"

Rome shrugged

"Nope, none at all, but the point is, I think that bet that dad has going with Ryan and Esposito may be reaching the all-out war stage, and what you witnessed, was dad starting to worry."

"Oh brother," Alexis sighed

"Anyways, I've got a lot of homework...I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'm going to head up to my room to work on it."

Alexis raised an eyebrow, looking at her brother suspiciously. He grinned and shrugged.

"You actually want to go do your homework?" she asked, "usually I have to practically push you up the stairs." She looked at him "what are you up to now?"

"Nothing, I swear, we have to do an illustration for ELA and it's just easier to do it on my art desk."

"I'm just kidding Rome," she leaned over and kissed the top of his head

"Alexis!" he exclaimed "no kissing!"

"You are such a little brat."

"I am not, it's just the kissing thing has got to stop." He paused "are you making dinner?"

"I don't know, gram should be home any minute, I'll see what she feels like. I bet dad's going to be at the precinct a little longer."

"Especially if the bet now involves a dress, he's going to be at this a long time." Rome added with a grin "I am curious to hear what the rest of the bet is, I'm willing to make my own bet that it's hilarious."

"Considering its dad, guaranteed you're right."

Rome nodded and headed towards his room. He wasn't lying that he preferred to do his homework in his room. His ELA class had been reading the Westing Game and their assignment was to do an illustration for the first three chapters of the book.

The minute the teacher told them that was what their homework was for the night, Rome's mind was buzzing with ideas on what to draw. He was literally drawing the illustrations in his mind, coloring them in, everything, then his mind started drifting to other chapters, he had nearly finished the book so he was drawing those in his mind, so he was excited to get up to his room and start doing homework that was actually relevant to something he loved.

He was at it an hour, pausing only for a few seconds to change out of his school uniform and into some much more comfortable jeans and a tee shirt. Rome had two of the three chapters completed and was anxious to start the third, though he was pretty proud of how the first set came out, he had drawn the actual tower and the landscape surrounding it. He was just about to put pencil to paper when he felt footsteps coming up the stairs, heels…gram. He looked up as she opened his door slightly and poked her head in.

"Darling how are you? How was school today?" she asked

"It was good gram," he replied, he held up his first illustration "what do you think?" he asked and she smiled

"That is beautiful, Romey are you moving into architecture now?"

Rome grinned and shook his head

"No, homework for school, we have to illustrate the chapters we're reading."

"Oh, Rome, it is beautiful." She paused "what is the book sweetie?"

"Westing Game," Martha looked slightly confused "it's a murder mystery, and it's really good I'm really liking it."

"Was there any surprise, I am very sure that in your entire reading life you have only found one book you didn't like."

"Good point gram," Rome replied, "you'd probably like it too gram."

"Well, I will have to look into." Martha paused "sweetheart do you know where your father keeps the camcorder?"

Rome thought that over for a second, he hadn't seen the video camera since Alexis' dance back in the spring, but he was pretty sure he knew where it was.

"I think so," he said, "why?"

"Oh Rome it's wonderful news, I had a call back for that play I auditioned for." Martha swooned and Rome grinned

"Way to go gram!" he exclaimed

"Your sister is going to read some lines with me and I was hoping I could employee you to be our resident videographer."

"Of course!" Rome exclaimed, he put his pencil down and darted past gram towards his dad's office to get the camera.

It was fun watching his sister and grandmother rehearse the play, even though Rome still had no idea what the play was about. He was doing his part diligently though, filming every part with care.

The play moved into a dramatic part where Grams' character accuses her daughter of stealing from her. Alexis who was reading the lines for the daughter played the part perfectly and both of them were struggling not to laugh when gram improvised the scene by wailing on Alexis with a throw pillow.

"How dare you! How dare you take my dress! You're as thoughtless as your father!" she shouted

I'm sorry, I just... Stop! Ow! No! I didn't... I didn't take anything! I didn't!" Alexis cried, biting back her laughter, Rome was purposely not looking at his sister fearing that he would set her off or she would set him off into fits of laughter.

"I ought to break your little wrists!" Martha shouted, whapping Alexis one last time with the pillow, just as the door to the loft swung open and Castle stumbled in looking frantic.

"Mother," he called "have you finally..."

Martha looked at Rome, then at Castle confused

"Have I finally what, dear?" she asked, Alexis sat up from the couch to look at their dad, after exchanging a look with Rome who shrugged and grinned a little.

"Hey, Dad." Alexis said grinning at Rome who waved at his dad.

"You're rehearsing." Castle said with a sigh, even Rome, whose hearing was pretty much gone, didn't miss the relief that seemed to wash off of Castle.

Martha still seemed confused regarding her son's entrance, but quickly she understood and beamed happily.

"Yes, I have a callback. Oh, and you believed us? Oh, my God. That's marvelous!" she exclaimed "Roman did you get all of that?"

Rome grinned and held up the video camera

"All of it gram, including dad's grand entrance!" he exclaimed turning off the camera and setting it down on the table, before sitting on the floor in front of the couch where he could see his dad better.

"You know, I am a better actress than I think I am." Martha said, more to herself than to the rest of the family.

Castle sighed again and sat down across from his kids, Rome and Alexis exchanged a look, something was wrong.

"You okay, Dad? You look upset." Alexis spoke up first

"Yeah dad, what's wrong?"

"Turns out something I was so sure of was just a coincidence." Castle explained, Martha sat down next to Alexis on the couch.

"Oh, is this about the murder?" she asked

"Exactly." Castle replied "It so happens that our two victims were connected. It just had nothing to do with their deaths."

"You know, I bet if you looked hard enough you'd find a connection between everybody in this city. I mean, it's the great thing about New York."

Rome nodded quickly

"Yeah I mean my math teacher Mr. Tucker? His daughter has this friend who went to Lexington and graduated with Rosie, remember her? So see, small world, connections everywhere.

"Yeah Rome's" Alexis spoke up right beside and if there wasn't a connection, you could always pretend there's one."

Martha cleared her throat bringing everyone's attention to her, she patted Alexis' hand before continuing.

"Besides the rehearsal, we have another drama going on here this evening." She explained

Castle seemed to know exactly where, make that who, the drama was geared around. So he didn't seem all that surprised.

"Oh. Owen?" he guessed

"Big-time Owen…" Rome replied, frowning

"You know how Thalia said she had a crush on Owen at Camp Chumash?" Alexis explained

"Serendipity at Serendipity. Yeah." Castle repeated

"No. More like subterfuge at Serendipity." Alexis paused and looked over at Rome "Rome and his friends did a little detective work of their own and got Todd's brother Bryce involved since he went to camp with Owen. He informed us that she never even went to Camp Chumash, and Bryce's friend Dylan who knows Thalia and goes to school with her explained to us that Thalia may not have gone to camp, but her friend did, and Thalia wanted to meet Owen, so she staged the whole thing."

"Creepy huh?" Rome added

"That's beyond creepy Doc, that…Oh, that is so budding-sociopath."

"I knew it couldn't be a coincidence and even Rome knew something wasn't right and this was just hearing it from my side. I mean, really? What are the odds?"

"Yeah, what are the odds?" Castle repeated, he paused and took a deep breath "have you guys eaten dinner yet?" Rome's stomach let out a growl and Castle chuckled "guess that answers that question," he paused again "I always think better on a full stomach and I think this calls for some Chinese food, anyone else game?"

Alexis and Rome quickly raised their hands and Martha after chuckling at her son and grandchildren did the same.


	12. Chapter 12

Rome rolled over and pulled his covers tighter around his body, he was freezing and couldn't shake the cold, it was as if the AC was left on or someone had opened a window in his room. Even though he was still asleep, Rome's mind flashed back to the factory, and the dog crate and how cold he had been there. His body gave a shiver and he curled up tighter and tighter, his knees to his chest trying to make himself a smaller target for the cold, it didn't help.

He felt a whoosh of cold air blow over him which sent a chill down his whole back and that was the last straw. Rome opened his eyes and looked around, nothing seemed out of the ordinary at least not at first glance, the lights from neighboring buildings were created strange and even spooky shadows on his wall, Rome liked creepy things, he was a big fan of all things scary, but he didn't like these shadows, between them and the cold, he was at the limit of his freaky handle meter.

Rome looked over at his alarm clock and groaned at the time, 3:30, not the time he wanted to be awake at, he was so tired, but was still freezing, he just couldn't get warm, the shadows were still dancing all over his wall, but now his ceiling too. Maybe a glass of milk would soothe him back to sleep, might not warm him up, but.

Carefully, Rome climbed down the ladder of his bunk, Castle after much deliberation had decided to allow Rome access to his top bunk again, even though he wasn't really keen on the idea. He knew how much Rome loved the bunk beds, but it was still a difficult thing to let him go back to the top bunk, after how close he had come to breaking his arm from the falls. But Rome was showing he was doing much better with that whole thing. He was going on nearly a week and a half without a nightmare

Castle had been searching for something else to use instead of the ladder and he had found a staircase that could attach to the bed like a ladder. Castle wasn't 100% sure but he was hoping it would have a better effect at keeping Rome from falling out of bed, at least directly falling out of bed. But the stairs wouldn't be available at the furniture store for another week, so Rome had to make do and he also had to promise that he would be careful, even though they all knew that Rome wasn't exactly falling out of bed on purpose.

He carefully walked past his sister's room, hoping she was so sound of sleep, she wouldn't hear him walking past. Alexis was a light sleeper lately, always keeping an ear out for Rome having a nightmare, but she didn't come to the door, no movement at all, so he knew he was in the clear.

At least until he got to the stairs. Rome hoped that the floorboards didn't creak as he walked down the steps he didn't want to wake his dad up or gram they'd be worried about him being up at this hour, though his dad would probably assume he was just sleepwalking or something.

At the bottom step, Rome stopped and felt for any vibrations, either from upstairs meaning his sister or from the first floor that could mean his dad or gram, but there was no movement, everyone was sound asleep, exactly where Rome wished he could be at the moment.

The kitchen was dark of course and the shadows from the cars way below on the street barely made their way through the large windows of the Castle loft, this caused Rome to pause for a moment and think this over, the lights and shadows he had seen upstairs in his room he assumed had come from the buildings, but they had moved…buildings didn't move and the side of the loft that his window faced didn't face the main street, not that the car lights could reach that far anyway…so where had the dancing lights come from?

Rome gave a shudder, trying to push that out of his mind, he didn't want to dwell on that, especially not at 3:30 in the morning, so he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and made his way towards the kitchen, careful not to walk into anything or trip over any misplaced items, like his own legos.

But Rome could walk the loft blindfolded and was only concerned with making noise to attack this father's attention. Rome glanced across the living room towards his father's office, the door was ajar and there weren't any lights on, which was a good sign that he was sleeping.

Rome pulled the door to the fridge open trying to be as quiet as possible, he couldn't hear anything but was really hoping he was being stealthy about this as he reached for the milk. Gram must have done the shopping because it was on the top shelf, out of his reach.

Rome groaned, he reached over to the switch over the sink and turned on the light, it was the dimmest light in the whole kitchen and the one that would be less likely to attract attention.

He pulled over one of the stools from the kitchen bar and hoped it wasn't making as much noise as he assumed he was, but there was no sign of castle coming from his office and Rome could see grams' door from where he was standing, no lights, no movement nothing.

Feeling really ridiculous that he was still too short to reach even the top shelf of the stupid fridge, Rome gave a silent groan. But it really wasn't so bad, Rome was creative and resourceful, he had been climbing on the furniture to reach things since he was about two.

The stool was wobbly and Rome was a little nervous as he climbed on it, he wasn't sure, why, maybe it was just the way his night was going since his cold wake up call.

Thankfully getting the carton of milk and getting off the stool went off without a hitch and Rome was able to pour himself a nice glass of milk.

He was just chugging it down when he felt the vibrations of footsteps on the floor, coming from his dad's room.

Wincing a little Rome turned slowly to face his dad. Castle was walking like a zombie as he shuffled towards the kitchen, looking half-awake.

"Doc," he said with a yawn, "Romey are you okay, it's like three in the morning. What are you doing up?"

Rome nodded

"Er dad more like 3:30" he admitted

"Even better," Castle replied rubbing his face "so...uh,"

"Wasn't a nightmare," Rome spoke up "I promise, I woke up cause my room was freezing and I couldn't fall back asleep so I figured I'd come down and get a drink of milk."

"Well, I guess that's a relief," Castle said smiling a little "wait kiddo, you said your room was cold?"

"Cold is an understatement dad." Rome explained putting his cup in the sink "it's like a freezer in there like there's an AC on and it's blowing right over my bed."

Castle looked confused, granted it was an 'it's 3:30 in the morning and my ten-year-old is still awake,' kind of confusion, but he knew Rome, despite his tremendous imagination Rome wasn't one to make up things like that, even if he had dreamed up the cold or was exaggerating, there had to be a reason for it and that reason had to be real in some capacity.

He walked over to the thermostat and checked the temperature for the loft, blinking a few times as his eyes adjusted to the limited light to read the digital temperature.

"Doc, this thing is set at sixty-five." Castle explained turning to sign to Rome who looked disappointed, but not all that surprised. He may have felt cold up in his room, but since coming downstairs he felt warmer, comfortable even.

"I swear dad, it's cold up there." Rome argued, "I'm not making it up,"

Castle chuckled

"Chill killer," he replied, "I didn't say I didn't believe you, I'm just telling you what the thermostat says the temperature is." He paused "come on, let's go up to your room, maybe you left your window open and forgot about it."

Rome shrugged and Castle knelt down, patting his shoulder for Rome to hop on, which after a few seconds of hesitating, he did.

Castle carried Rome up the stairs quietly and walked into his room. Castle gave a shiver as he realized Rome was right about the cold, his room was freezing.

"Told you," Rome said sliding off his dad's back "it's even worse up near my bed."

"Makes sense kiddo, one of the heating vents is up on your ceiling, near the foot of your bed." Castle carefully climbed the ladder and put his hand up near the vent in question and quickly pulled his hand back at the cold air blowing out of the vent. "I'll call the maintenance guy tomorrow, have him fix it." Castle paused climbing back down "the last thing I need is you catching a cold."

"Where am I going to sleep tonight?" Rome asked looking up at his bed, he had finally gotten his top bunk back, now he wasn't going to be able to enjoy it.

"Well you could snuggle up on the bottom bunk, but I would sleep downstairs on the couch Doc, be nice and warm down there."

Rome nodded,

"Okay," he replied accepting that, the couch was squishy and pretty comfortable, he'd taken many naps on it when he was sick and it was especially comfortable when he had an ear infection.

Castle reached up to the top bunk and pulled down some of Rome's heaps of blankets, his pillow, and Balto.

"I am surprised you felt the cold air with all the blankets you got up here, have you been hoarding them or something?" Castle asked with a grin "preparing for the next ice age?"

"Hey you never know," Rome answered pulling another blanket off his bottom bunk. It was a knitted one that Joey's grandmother had made all of Joey's friends the previous year, it was really warm and cozy, and Rome loved it, he just hadn't moved it up to the top bunk just yet.

Castle chuckled, glad that Rome could still joke about his blanket hoarding, even though both knew it went a little deeper than just his past love of snuggling deep under blankets. It was all psychological, but Rome's body still shivered relentlessly at night, his mind still focusing on the cold nights trapped in the dog crate. The overstock of blankets seemed to help a little bit and even though Castle knew most of those blankets would be kicked off to the floor by morning, he helped Rome carry the multitude down the stairs to the family room.

Rome did what he always did and snuggled under the comforters and other blankets deep as he could possibly go. Balto securely tucked under his arm.

Castle knelt down and tucked him in tighter, Rome was already falling asleep so Castle knew he wouldn't get a response out of him, so he simply leaned over and kissed the top of Rome's head, pulling the blankets up to Rome's chin. As he headed towards his own Rome, Castle sighed with relief knowing that Rome had woken himself up to get the drink and that he hadn't been sleepwalking.

x-x-x-x-x

Rome blinked and snuggled deeper into the couch pulling his blanket over his head as the sunlight poured into the loft. But it wasn't the sunlight that woke him up, it was the vibration of clicking heels on the hardwood floor, Gram was awake and wearing heels for some reason

Groaning a little, Rome closed his eyes, pretending he had gone back to sleep as he felt the clicking of Grams' heels on the floor coming over to him. She shook him gently and Rome could only assume that she was calling his name, which he definitely couldn't hear. Slowly he opened his eyes and saw gram standing over him smiling.

"Morning kiddo," she said signing as her face shifted into one of concern "darling why are you on the couch? Please don't tell me you had another nightmare."

"Nothing that dramatic," Rome assured his grandmother "the um therma...themo...argh." He frowned "the stupid thing that controls the heat is busted or something. It was blowing out cold air last night, I woke up freezing. So, dad, had me sleep down here till he can call someone to fix it."

Martha smiled and kissed the top of his head,

"I thought I heard rustling strange movement down here last night. Roman Castle, did you climb on a stool to get something during this switch from your bedroom to the couch?"

Rome grinned as he sat up, emerging from his nice warm cocoon.

"Well, I couldn't fall back asleep with the cold in my room, so I figured I'd come down here and get some milk. But someone put the milk on the top shelf of the fridge, couldn't reach it." He explained with a shrug, Martha sighed and chuckled a little

"That was my fault sweetie, I did the shopping yesterday and your sister's science project was taking over a majority of the fridge, I meant to move back down where you could reach it, but it slipped my mind."

Rome nodded

"It's okay gram," he said hugging her "I always enjoy climbing on furniture, gives me some exercise."

Martha sighed

"Yes, yes I know you do," she paused "it just worries me when you do that, I've been telling you that since you started walking and started climbing on everything in sight."

"Sorry,"

"Anyways my darling would you like to help your grandmother with something?"

Rome nodded quickly helping gram could be dangerous sometimes, but Rome's curiosity always overshadowed his need for self-preservation when it came to his grandmother.

"Sure,"

"Go get ready for school first darling, then make sure your sister is awake and have her come down here too."

Rome grinned evilly

"And if she's not awake can I use the squirt gun?"

"No you may not use a squirt gun to wake your sister," Martha paused as Rome's shoulders fell. "But if you'd like, you may use whatever means you have at your disposal to wake your father up."

Not needing any more than that invitation, Rome bolted off the couch running towards his room.

Inside he threw on his school uniform, tied his sneakers, and combed his hair quickly. His hearing aids were always the last thing he took care of and he made a face as he slipped them into his ears, and turned them on only to discover no sounds.

Either they weren't working or his hearing wasn't and he was more apt to blame his hearing than his hearing aids since they were basically brand new. It was becoming a regular occurrence for his hearing to be either barely functioning or not working at all and unfortunately, his good days were becoming rare.

Castle had replaced the hearing aids after Rome's kidnapping, they had truly been malfunctioning in the weeks following so Castle just replaced them.

Rome was pretty sure it was a waste of money since the new ones had only helped him hear maybe four times since getting them.

But Rome didn't care about his hearing for the moment, he wanted to know what his grandmother was up to and willing to go along with pretty much anything.

He grabbed his backpack off of his chair and made sure his homework and school supplies were in it. He was about to head out when he paused, he had been hoping to ask his dad if he could walk to Canal Street Art Supply after school, he needed a few new supplies and hadn't talked to Gavin in a while, but at the same time there was also something else he wanted to show Gavin, he had been working on the story his dad had written while he was kidnapped, all the notes, everything that Castle had collected and hung onto.

Rome hadn't figured out why his dad had kept all the stuff, all typed up on his computer. Granted the drawings Rome had been forced to do and the actual story all bound together was sitting in a box at the 12th precinct, but that didn't make Rome really feel much better.

Sighing, Rome shoved the folder into his backpack. He wouldn't tell Gavin that the sketches he had done were based on an actual event, he'd show Gavin and get the fellow comic artist's opinion on the storyline and go from there.

Once his bag was all zipped up, he headed towards his sister's room. No sign of life was coming from Alexis' room. He glanced at his watch, well, no sign of life probably because it was forty-five minutes before she'd even consider being awake. Slowly Rome pushed the door open and peeked in, Alexis was indeed sound asleep and from the looks of it, snoring just a little bit.

"Lexis," he called "Lexis gram sent me, she wants you up, and downstairs she's got a surprise for us!" Well, in all fairness Rome didn't know if it was actually a surprise like a gift surprise or a Martha Rodgers scheme type surprise, either way, it would be amusing and Rome didn't want to miss a minute of it.

Alexis rolled over and Rome had to duck as a pillow flew at him, asleep or not his sister had killer aim when she put her mind to it.

"Go away Rome, still sleeping." She managed to mumble, Rome really had to strain to see her lips and really only got a word or two out of the sentence, but he was able to fill in the blanks easily enough.

Gram had said he couldn't use a squirt gun to get his sister up, but she never said anything about tampering with Alexis' alarm. He tip-toed over to the bedside table where Alexis kept her phone to serve as an alarm clock, just as he suspected she had it set to go off in another forty-five minutes, nope too long.

Rome picked up the phone and changed the time for the alarm to go off for five minutes. Usually, Alexis was the first one up and she was dragging Rome out of bed, but he hadn't exactly slept well on the couch and even though he hated to come out of the blanket tent he had created, he was glad when gram had come to the couch, trying to wake him up.

Knowing his sister would be up shortly, Rome picked his backpack up again and headed down to the kitchen, not much had changed except there were packets of papers lined up and the camcorder sitting amongst the piles and Rome instantly knew what was going on.

Gram had been preparing for an audition for some play she had her heart set on and had been practicing every moment of the day. A few nights before, her and Alexis had been bouncing lines off of one another while Rome filmed it. He loved helping his gram rehearse and was very glad that his role could be more of the videographer rather than an actor.

"Oh good there you are kiddo, did you get your sister up?" Gram asked

"She should be joining us any minute now," Rome replied with a grin as Castle walked out of his room.

"Hey Doc, how'd you sleep?" he asked ruffling Rome's hair as he headed for the kitchen to get some cereal.

"Pretty good, least it was warm down here."

"Good Richard, you're up, I was hoping you and the kids could help me with some lines that I simply must go over."

Castle and Rome exchanged a knowing look and Castle nudged Rome's shoulder

'This could get dangerous Doc, we might need reinforcements' he signed and Rome bit back a laugh as Martha wagged a finger at the pair of them

"I saw that you two." She said "now where is Alexis?" she added headed towards the stairs to go get Alexis up, she turned to Rome, "I thought you were getting your sister?"

Rome's grin widened

"Wait for it gram," he said looking at his watch "in five, four, three, two, one," he pointed at the stairs "give her a second gram, she'll be coming down right about-" Rome had timed it pretty good, because Alexis came sauntering down the stairs, looking bedraggled and, slightly annoyed.

"ROME!" Alexis yelled hitting the bottom step. "did you mess with the alarm on my phone?"

Rome looked around innocently

"Maybe?" he replied grinning, "I told you gram had a surprise for us, you're the one who wasn't getting up. I was making sure you didn't miss out on something good." He paused "you should be thanking me, Lex."

Alexis sighed

"How late were you up?" Castle asked Alexis as she eyed her father's coffee

"Till two. This test is going to be the death of me," she explained

"You should follow my method," Rome spoke up grabbing a glass of milk as he set up the video camera "wait till an hour before the test, look over the study guide, and hope for the best."

Castle and Alexis looked at each other

"Doc, that method is probably not the best one to follow," Castle said with a chuckle, off of Alexis' shocked look.

"Let's go my assistants! Gather 'round so we can rehearse!" Martha called dramatically. Alexis looked down at herself and sighed

"Let me go get dressed first gram," she said headed upstairs, she turned and look at Rome, he could see she wasn't really mad, she was just pretending. "Apparently I have time to kill."

While Martha flitted around getting the "scene" ready Castle rolled his eyes at her and chuckled.

"Dad?" Rome asked as he poured some Cocoa Puffs into a bowl

"Yeah, kiddo?"

"Dad, I know this is last minute, but could I go to the art store after school today?"

"Canal Street?" Rome nodded and Castle thought that over, he looked at Martha who stopped setting things up and was now listening to the conversation intently. He sighed "this is a crossroads thing isn't it?" Martha nodded "okay Doc, if you want to go to the art store after school, you can go. But the same rules as always apply, I want you to text me when your leaving school, text me when you get to the store, text me when you leave the store, and-"

"When I get home," Rome added nodding "I will I promise." He reached over and hugged Castle tight "thank you dad!" he exclaimed

"Anytime kiddo."

When Alexis came back downstairs she started making her own breakfast, her lines were easy, she was playing the grandmother in the play so she had maybe two or three lines tops.

Castle was busy eating his breakfast and was only half paying attention to the actual play that was occurring in the kitchen, while Martha was completely all in, which was understandable. Rome, on the other hand, was multitasking, eating a second bowl of cereal, drinking his third glass of milk, and videotaping the scene, he also had his own copy of the script, which helped him follow along.

"I swear, Jasmine, this has always been the way with you. You can't just go through life asking for an egg in your beer and your money back twice." Martha turned to Castle, waiting for him to respond, he was, however, reading over a magazine article. When he didn't respond after a few seconds, she swatted him with the script. "Your money back twice!"

Rome snorted back a laugh and Alexis was also trying not to laugh because Rome almost had milk come out his nose.

"Sorry." Castle said turning back to the script. He looked over at Rome and Alexis "quiet you two." He added chuckling, before reading from the script "Mama, if I'm such a disappointment to you, I don't know why you even bother coming home. Isn't that right, Granny?"

Alexis, still trying not to laugh, turned from the stove, this time acting like she was old and ready for the grave.

"Shut up, both of you. I'm trying to watch my stories." She cackled and Rome was literally holding his mouth so he would laugh, even though he was pretty sure it could be heard on camera.

This was the second time they'd been through this particular scene and each time Rome was surprised that Gram hadn't stopped them for laughing, because Alexis was cracking up, Rome was cracking up, and their dad was just oblivious.

"Oh, I wish I'd never left Paris." Martha swooned and Rome grinned, snapping his finger

"And, scene! Excellent work people, really give yourselves a pat on that back of yours." He called, he turned to Alexis "Be a sport and bring me a non-foamy double dark chocolate espresso with extra espresso and extra dark chocolate?" he said in what he hoped was an obnoxious voice. "Oh and let's splurge and make it a triple."  
Alexis reached over and pushed him

"As if I'd ever give you an espresso, you bounce off of walls with just chocolate milk."

"But that's why you love me." Rome explained and Alexis laughed a little

Martha however, continued as if she hadn't heard either of them.

"Good. Good, alright. Let's take it from the top." Castle, Rome, and Alexis all simultaneously let out a groan. "Oh, guys. Come on. Don't you want me to land this role?"

"Of course we do. It's just..." Castle tried to explain, he looked at his kids knowing they'd do a better job at being convincing.

"Yeah," Alexis added

"Really want you too gram! It'll be awesome for you." Rome finished up

"Look," Martha started "we are talking about the lead in a Broadway play. This is a potential gold mine. If it's a hit, who knows how long it could run? Then I could take it on the road."

Now Rome and Alexis looked surprised and, Rome couldn't help the disappointed feeling that washed over him. He wanted his grandmother to land a role that she clearly wanted and knew how much it meant to her to be in a Broadway play, but not if that meant she'd be gone.

Alexis was obviously thinking along the same lines because she put a hand on Martha's arm.

"You mean you'd leave us?" she asked, sadness in her voice

"No gram," Rome added

Martha, however, looked thrilled encouraged at seeing how much her grandchildren didn't want her to leave them. She hugged both of them tight, realizing she had to reassure them.

"Well, only for nine months of the year. Oh, don't look so sad. And, you, don't look so happy." She added, swatting Castle with the script again which sent Rome into another fit of laughter.

This was cut short though as Castle's phone began vibrating on the counter and Rome could only assume it rang as well and of course, they all knew who it was.

'Talk about being saved by the bell?' Alexis asked signing to Rome who laughed and nodded.

Castle looked at the pair of them and rolled his eyes, swatting at them with the script he had been blatantly ignoring, Alexis grinned and handed Rome his lunch bag.

Castle." Rome watched as his dad's eyes lit up and he knew exactly what was going on, there was a murder somewhere in the city. That meant he was going to be able to escape the rehearsal. Rome looked over at Alexis who was listening intently. "I'll be right there. Alright." Castle continued hanging up the phone, he looked at them innocently, "right um. Death. Murder. Mayhem. Whole enchilada. Sorry to bail on rehearsal." He said standing up quickly,

"Oh, don't worry." Martha spoke up nonchalantly, she looked at Rome and Alexis as if deciding which one would be best to select and Rome had the sudden urge to move closer to the door "Alexis can read your parts and Rome can play granny. It's all right if they miss a morning of school, isn't it?"

Martha moved off to set up the video camera and reorganize the scripts as Rome and Alexis looked at each other horrified and turned to their dad.

"Take me with you!" Alexis exclaimed

"Me too, don't leave me behind! I'm your little brother you can't abandon me!" Rome said grabbing Alexis' sleeve

Castle looked at the pair of them as if he was in total shock.

"To a crime scene?" he whispered, signing for Rome.

"It'd be educational. Please? Think about all that Rome and I can learn!" Alexis argued her case, which Rome thought was a pretty good argument.

"Please dad," Rome added "please, please, please, don't make your only son be granny! I don't want to be granny." He grabbed Castle's arm "it would be cruel and unusual punishment, I'll be scarred for life."

Castle patted Rome on the head, looked back at Martha for a second, grimaced, and turned back to his kids.

"Find your own hiding place." He replied with a grin, he kissed Alexis on the forehead, ruffled Rome's hair again and bolted.

"Did he just abandon us?" Rome asked

"Uh-huh," Alexis replied

"I guess it's every man and kids for themselves when it comes to gram's practice," Rome muttered as Martha swooped back in

"Ready to give it another try kiddos?" she asked handing the scripts out "from the top!"

Rome looked down at the script and winced at the line for granny, he looked back at his sister and mouthed 'do something, quick!'

x-x-x-x

Alexis managed to get herself and Rome out of the loft in a timely fashion, neither one of them missed the first bell, there was also no more rehearsal for them. Mainly because a few of Martha's acting friends stopped by to see her and somehow she was able to rope them into practicing with her, giving Rome and Alexis the opportunity to sneak out, which Rome was extremely grateful for.

Alexis had some kind of meeting after school, so it gave Rome the opportunity to go to the art store and not have to really worry about a time frame, in other words, he didn't have to worry about his sister looking at her watch every five minutes, worried that she was running out of valuable study time.

The store was about a fifteen-minute walk from school and a quick four-minute walk back home to the loft. It was a walk Rome had done thousands of times, mostly with his father, grandmother, sister, or even Gina, but it wasn't something he had done solely very often, one time actually, a week before school had let out the previous year. Castle had let Rome walk to the art store from school alone and then Martha had met him there and they walked home together.

So with the opportunity to do this by himself, Rome was feeling a little apprehensive. He didn't mean to, but the memories always seemed to come back whenever he walked the streets…especially in the rain. It didn't matter who was with him or where they were going it was almost guaranteed to happen at least once where his mind would flashback to his abduction.

Rome had become especially wary of alleyways and though he knew he looked ridiculous doing it, he would pick up speed and literally bolt between alleyway entrances, just to avoid being caught in front of one. It made him feel better, but it also reminded him that it was standing in front of in alley that got him kidnapped in the first place, it was the needed incentive to not care how silly he looked.

Though, even Rome had to admit he was being a little overcautious and even teetering on paranoid. But it wasn't a big secret, his dad had seen him do it, gram, Alexis, even Gina had seen it. It was just something he had to work through, like everything else, it was part of the healing. Besides the alley avoidance, Rome was doing a pretty good job keeping up appearances, so no one really knew how scared he was to walk down the streets, especially alone.

Castle knew Rome was still apprehensive, but he was taking it literally one step at a time, and even though Rome would admit it aloud, his dad probably knew just how scared he was just for the simple walk from school to the art store.

Everyone, but especially Rome knew it was just one of those things that were going to take time to heal and time for him to get over. Rome also knew one way to get rid of the fear was to face it and that meant walking by himself to his favorite art store, no matter how scared he was.

Even though his hearing was pretty much gone even with his hearing aids in, Rome was on high alert, every bit of movement caught his attention, he paid attention to the vibrations all around him; the cars, the pedestrians, bikes, everything.

It was crowded on the street, even for early afternoon, but Rome eased into the masses, letting them inadvertently protect him. He tried to stay close to people he assumed would notice if someone tried to grab him; a mother pushing a stroller, a grandfather like guy hobbling along on his cane, kids, some his age, some younger, some older.

This worked all the way to Canal Street and as he turned left onto Vicks Street, with Canal dead ahead and the art store in full view, Rome felt a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that he had done it. He even felt a little bit of his apprehension fade away.

Rome literally breathed a sigh of relief as he walked into the art store, happy he had made it. He was so relieved, he nearly forgot to text his dad that he had arrived, thankfully a woman who was leaving the store was texting on her phone and that reminded Rome that he had his own text to send. After texting his dad, Rome looked around the store as he waited for a reply.

Gavin had a few other customers, but he looked up when the bell rang and he gave Rome a wave before going back to helping a girl about Lex's age as he rang up her purchases. The reply from his dad didn't take long to come, because less than a minute after sending it, Rome felt his phone vibrate in his pocket as his dad told him great job and reminded him to text again when he was heading home.

Rome walked down the aisles and wandered to the sharpies he had recently gone experimenting with the different colored sharpies he liked the way they finished the cartoons and figured he'd stock up while he waited for Gavin to finish. Rome loved the art store it had a smell to it that was like only the art room at school, it was the smell of ink and crayons, paints, markers, pencils, charcoal, and paper. Rome loved the smell of bookstores like his dad, but art stores had their own distinct scent, like feeling a fresh sharp pencil in his hand.

Rome was so deep in thought he didn't feel Gavin's footsteps coming up behind him and he nearly jumped a foot in the air when the storeowner tapped him on the shoulder gently.

"Gah!" he exclaimed turning around

"Wow, Rome, sorry kid didn't mean to spook you," Gavin said giving him an apologetic smile.

"It…it's okay," Rome replied, "I wasn't paying attention."

"Clearly," was Gavin's response "long time no see huh, where you been? I mean it's been weeks I thought I lost my best customer."

Rome grinned and shook his head as the pair of them headed to the front of the store. There Gavin went behind the counter and sat down on his stool while Rome climbed onto a similar one on the other side.

"Sorry, I was kind of grounded so school and home were pretty much my limits," Rome admitted shrugging

"Grounded? You? Who grounded you, your grandmother?" Rome shook his head "dude your dad grounded you?" Gavin exclaimed "holy heck what did you do to warrant that action? I never thought I'd hear of the day that your dad would actually ground you for real."

Rome grinned and sighed a little. When him and Castle had first started going into the Canal Street Art Supply store Rome's hearing was just starting to fade and he had been doing pretty well with sign language and learning to read lips. But Gavin was a naturally fast talker so Rome had a lot of trouble keeping up with the young owner and found himself relying on his dad to translate.

Having known the Castle family for so long now, Gavin had really learned to slow down when he spoke for Rome's sake, but every once in a while he let loose and this was one of those times.

Rome could usually piece together Gavin's speed speech, but this time was tougher, mainly because Gavin had decided growing a full-on beard and mustache was a good idea. When his older friend saw the confusion and hesitation on Rome's face he understood he had gone to fast and carefully repeated what he had said, using the limited sign language he knew.

"I did something stupid and risky." Rome explained "I kind of ditched my sister after school and took the metro uptown to visit with dad's medical examiner friend Lanie." He paused again "she works with the detective from the 12th that I told you about, the one who my dad's been following around and is the base character for his new book?"

"oh yeah, Heat Wave right?" Rome nodded "yeah saw the article in Cosmo," now Rome snickered back a laugh, clearly he was failing at it because Gavin rolled his eyes at him.

"You read Cosmo?" he asked with a grin

"Don't judge me, kid, my girlfriend Lisa was reading it and I saw it over her shoulder."

"Sure, that's your story and you're sticking to it?" Rome asked

"If the shoe fits, hey speaking of your dad and his books, do you think he'd ever considered letting one of the comic companies have a go?"

Rome shrugged

"Gina his publisher has been prodding him for a while to do it, he's kind of waiting it out to see what's available. I told him that if he ever does consider it, it better be Marvel who designs it."

"Well put kid, anyways he probably could just have you design the whole thing you're good enough."

Rome's ears went red and he shrugged

"Right, um anyway, the reason I was grounded was because I didn't tell anyone I was going up there and well…again I did something stupid and had to face the result." Rome reached into his backpack "anyways, I've got some panels I was hoping to get your opinion on," he pulled out the folder with the sketches he had been doing, the actual panel, and the notes his father had taken, all from the box he had hidden under his bed.

"Sweet this your haunted house story? I've been dying," Gavin grinned "pun seriously intended, to read this sucker."

Rome winced and shook his head

"No, it's um, something new that I'm working on." He handed the folder to Gavin, who opened it up carefully. Rome hadn't added any text to the panels, only the artwork, he had only colored a few of the panels, but it was pretty clear what the text would say when it came time for that.

It only took Gavin a few seconds to look through, as Rome watched he actually did a double-take on some of it and Rome winced a little.

"Wow kid, I gotta say this is pretty dark," Gavin admitted when he finally put the panels down. "I mean I know your dad writes murder mysteries and spy novels, but a kidnapping? What made you come up with something like this?"

"Uh…" Rome hesitated racking his brain for a good excuse "Alexis was watching that movie Taken the other day and…" his voice trailed off, not sure how to explain any of it.

"Oh, okay, anyways it's good, beyond good this is professional even,"

Rome nodded

"Thanks, it's probably not going anywhere, I just got hit with it and."

"No need to explain my man, you're an artist, whenever an artist feels the inspiration you've gotta apply your craft." Gavin paused "speaking of which, I've got some of my own panels I need your opinion on."

"Cool!" Rome exclaimed, he packed his own panels away and waited anxiously for Gavin to bring his out. He glanced at his watch, he had forty-five minutes before he was expected to be home, plenty of time.

x-x-x-x


	13. Chapter 13

When Rome finally left the art store, he was running just a bit late, he didn't mean to, but he lost track of time and before he knew it, it was almost dinner time.

So with a quick goodbye to Gavin, Rome darted out of the store, heading for home. As he jogged along the sidewalk, Rome's awareness of his surroundings was as always on high alert. But everything went smooth, he was just about to turn the corner when he saw a newspaper stand, the cosmo magazine stood out because it had his dad on the cover. Rome reached into his pocket and felt his money, he had just enough left from the art store for the magazine. Even though he knew his dad probably bought a whole pile of them, Rome figured one more couldn't hurt.

The vendor did give him a funny look when he picked up the magazine and handed him the money. He looked like he wanted to question Rome, but instead, he looked at the cover of the magazine, and at Rome, clearly, the vendor noticed the strong resemblance between Rick Castle on the cover of the magazine and the little kid standing in front of him.

"Kid you look familiar," he started to say "aren't you,"

"Thank you," Rome interrupted politely as the vendor handed him his change, he didn't give the man a chance to really say anything else as he took off running down the street for home, hoping that he had at least beat Alexis home.

Unfortunately, it was the other way around, Alexis had beaten Rome home, and when he walked into the loft and saw her at the counter doing her homework he nearly had a panic attack wondering if he was in fact late. He looked at his watch in worry and Alexis looked up from her books, she pulled her earbuds out and smiled at her little brother.

"Have fun at the art store?" she asked, "did you run all the way home?" she added, seeing how much he was huffing and puffing.

"I didn't want to worry you, I was kinda hoping to beat you home," he admitted dropping his backpack on the counter

"Right, you leave the art store at a reasonable time?" Alexis scoffed gently "the day I see that happen I'll be sure you're an imposter." She looked at the magazine in his hand "is that dad's article?"

"Yup, just bought it," Alexis grinned "let me guess, you bought one too," Rome asked and she nodded, sliding the same magazine towards Rome. "Well, it'll make dad happy." He paused climbing up on the stool next to his sister "did you get to read it?"

Alexis nodded

"A little bit, definitely a puff piece, but the reporter loved everything about dad, about the book, and about Detective Beckett."

"That's good," Rome looked around the empty loft "did gram call yet about her play?" Alexis kind of winced and Rome could pretty much guess what was wrong "uh oh," he muttered

"Uh oh is an understatement, she got home a little while ago and has been in her room since."

"So she didn't get the play?"

"Oh, that's not the problem."

"So she did get the play?" he asked, "how is that a problem, she's been looking forward to getting a part in this play for what months?"

"Well, she didn't get the part she wanted,"

"Come on Lex, just spill already,"

"Gram was offered a part in the play, but it wasn't the lead,"

"then which part?"

"The granny," Alexis replied, Rome had gone over the script a few times with gram, helping her with her lines and of course the videotaping that morning, so he was wracking his brain trying to remember details about the grandmother. Granted it wasn't the lead role his grandmother would desire, but it was still a role in a major Broadway production. Then Rome remembered, the granny wasn't really a big role, she not only died in act one but also died off stage.

"Oh…Oh" Rome replied "that's not good," he said wincing again "has she come out at all?"

"No, she's been in her room, pretty much mourning the loss of her career."

"So did she accept the role?" he asked, even though Rome was pretty sure he knew the answer, Alexis shook her head

"I think she's still debating it, but I walked past her door and heard her rehearsing her confrontation with her agent, something about Martha Rodgers not dying in the first act and never off stage."

"Poor gram," Rome muttered, "this is not going to be a fun aftermath is it?"

"Remember when she didn't get a call back from the director for Phantom of the Opera?"

"Oh, yeah,"

"She'll be fine, it will just take a little while,"

"I can't believe they want her to play the granny," Rome said, more to himself than to his sister "I mean that's kind of mean isn't it?"

"I agree," Alexis said, she reached for Rome's backpack and began pulling out his folders and books, Rome had a bad habit of forgetting notices and other things from school and if Alexis didn't pull them out, they'd become lost in the bottom of his backpack. She had a few notices that were passed out during homeroom in the high school wing, so it was pretty much a guarantee that the middle school got them too.

"Did dad call at all?" Rome asked, ignoring his sister's investigation into his backpack, he was used to this and just found it easier to not fight her, besides he learned so much from the notices that he never gave a second glance to when they were passed out.

"A little while ago, said he was on his way home,"

"Is he bringing home dinner?" Rome asked eying the kitchen as his stomach let out a loud growl, he slid off the stool and wandered towards the kitchen, he reached into the fridge to pull out a juice box, he also reached for the cookies that were sitting on the counter next to the fridge but felt Alexis giving him a look, so he put them back, before turning back to his sister who was in fact giving him a look.

"He didn't say, but I'm assuming yes, so no cookies."

"But Lex, come on I'm hungry," Rome said, emphasizes hungry as he signed

"Have an apple," was the answer he got, his sister paused "Rome, this letter is two weeks old!" she exclaimed pulling out a notice with the Marlowe Prep seal on it.

"Oops," he replied grinning, pulling an apple from the fruit bowl.

"You left it in here on purpose didn't you?"

Rome didn't answer, but he also didn't look his sister in the eyes, the truth was he did remember that particular notice but had hoped that it would get buried at the bottom of his bag.

It was about voting for the sixth-grade play, something that he was determined to avoid at all possible costs. The teachers had narrowed the musical down to two, it was either going to be Peter Pan or the Wizard of Oz and the notice going home was for parents and kids to cast their votes for which products they wanted to do. But the rumor was that Lion King was also a possibility.

It was less his dad and more gram Rome was hoping to keep from knowing about the play. Granted that was going to be tough, but the longer Rome was able to keep it from her, the better chances he'd come away with his sanity.

Rome slowly looked up and winced at the look his sister was giving him, he shrugged innocently

"Come on Lex, I really, really, really don't want gram to find out that they're already voting on the play,"

"Rome, she loves being involved in the school plays, especially with this whole granny thing, it'll be good for her, why are you avoiding it?"

"Because I don't want to be in the play? Like on stage."

"Who says you're going to be on stage? Don't you have to audition first?" Alexis asked, smiling a little

"its gram, she's sneaky and will figure out a way to get me on that stage." Rome shuddered "with my luck she'll get me to have a speaking part." He sighed "I really just want to do a behind the scenes kind of thing, like set designer or lighting specialist, if I have to do anything at all."

"Gram may be all into the theater Rome, but she's not going to make you be on stage if you don't want to,. I have never once been told by Gram she wanted me to be in a play at school. I think you may be overreacting. " Rome gave Alexis a look and she chuckled, "just a little bit,"

"No, no I am not,"

"Anyways, I still think you should let dad at least see the note, you know how much dad loves the story of Peter Pan, he'll be thrilled that it's a nominee."

Rome sighed, that was certainly true, he remembered their dad telling them the story of Peter Pan before bedtime, acting out the parts as he did with all their bedtime stories, but Peter Pan always seemed to stick out a little more.

'All right, I won't hide the note from dad, but we're hiding it from gram' Rome signed carefully, just in case gram overheard.

"You are a scared cat about stuff like this," Alexis concluded, Rome grinned

"Says the girl who begged dad to take her to a crime scene just this morning in order to avoid helping gram practice any more lines,"

"Don't put that all on me, you were right there with me."

"Point taken." Rome agreed, he paused for a second, Alexis had finished searching his backpack and had returned to her own homework, but not before spreading his agenda out on the counter to remind him of his homework. He slid off the stool again, heading towards the stairs to grab a pencil from his room when he paused at the stairs, turning back to his sister. "Lex?" he called, she looked up from her math homework

"Yeah?"

"I know this sounds kinda weird and kinda random, but do you have anything after school tomorrow?"

Alexis thought that over, she pulled out her own agenda and looked it over, before shaking her head.

"No, nothing, why?"

"Could you go with me to the 12th?"

"The precinct?" Alexis asked, clearly confused by her brother's request "uh, why?"

"I never really got to thank Detective Beckett for…y'know helping dad find me. And I thought maybe I could bring her flowers or something." Alexis grinned a little at her brother and Rome's ears went immediately red as he ducked his head "never mind, it's stupid, forget I mentioned it."

"It's not stupid Rome, it's sweet and I'd be happy to go with you to the 12th."

"Thanks, Lex, you sure you don't have anything with Owen or something?"

Alexis shook her head and made a face

"Nope, nothing,"

"Things still weird with you guys?" he asked, moving back towards his sister to see her hands better, he could feel his hearing fading in and out and he had a feeling it would probably be gone by the end of the night. He also felt weird asking his sister about her relationship, but he had grown weary of Owen and wanted to make sure that Alexis was safe in every sense of the word.

"It's hard to tell honestly, I don't think it's going to last much longer."

"Sorry," Rome replied with a shrug, not really sure what else to say.

"What for?"

"I thought he was a good guy, so I guess I didn't read him to well," Alexis rolled her eyes at him "what?"

"Rome you're not my bodyguard, as much as I know you'd love to be and as much as you definitely act like it. Besides, he's a senior now there's a lot he's got to focus on." Alexis paused and smiled gently at him "I'll be in that same place before we know it," Rome winced he hated to think about that particular future, his sister being at college, away from home.

"Yeah, can we not think about that just yet?" Rome pleaded and Alexis chuckled

"Only because you asked anyways, don't worry about me and Owen," she reached over and hugged him tightly, before letting him go to sign carefully to him "besides, with you for a little brother I know I'm always safe." Rome rolled his eyes, his ears turning bright red again "you are so adorable when you get embarrassed like that,"

"Lemme alone Lex," Rome grumbled, running towards the stairs, even though his hearing was fading a bit, he could hear his sister laughing and had to grin, following her lead.

An hour later, after finishing his homework Rome ran upstairs to grab his sketchbook, he was just coming down, when the door to the apartment opened and Castle staggered in, carrying a stack of magazines in one hand and a large paper bag in the other.

"Hello!" he called "I'm home, and I brought Chow Fun!"

Even if Rome's hearing had been acting up he would've guessed what his dad brought home for dinner, he could smell it. Beef fried rice, egg rolls, even boneless spareribs, he could smell them all from the top of the stairs.

"YES!" He shouted hurrying down the last few stairs "Food!" he darted over to his father and took the bag from his arms, balancing his sketchbook on top of it "I'll take care of it!" he added, carrying the bag over to the counter.

"Feeling the love Roman, really, I am." Castle said with a chuckle "is that all your dad is good for? Bringing you food?"

"Sorry dad, I'm starving though, it was meatloaf for lunch today, it was pretty unidentifiable. I knew I should've made a sandwich here…' sides Lex wouldn't let me have anything 'cept a juice box when I got home."

Castle grinned as Alexis came over

"Denying your brother snacks?" he asked, "how can you be so cruel?"

"Only a little bit," Alexis replied hugging him "Hey, Dad." She added

"Hey."

Alexis reached over and grabbed the stack of magazines, freeing Castle's arms completely.

"Oh, nice. But I already picked up a copy on our way home. And Rome picked you up one too,"

Rome looked up from the Chinese food carton he was pretending not to eat out of and nodded.

"Hey Doc, save me some egg rolls will you?" Castle called

"Will do," Rome replied, his mouth full of said egg roll, Castle rolled his eyes and chuckled, before turning back to Alexis

"Well, did you guys read it? Was she kind?"

"The writer loved you. She loved Detective Beckett. She even loved the book. It was your basic puff piece."

"Really puffy," Rome added, putting the plates out and organizing the boxes, sampling from each one as he went. "it made a pufferfish look deflated,"

Castle chuckled as Alexis looked at her brother with a confused look.

"Right, well, I'm sure my mother will find something to say that will keep me from getting too puffed." Castle continued

Rome and Alexis exchanged a look, wincing a little

"Not tonight, she won't. She's in her room, mourning the death of her career." Alexis explained

Now Castle understood their wincing and joined them

"Oh, she didn't get that play?"

"Er," Alexis started to say, she looked at Rome again

"Well. Um, she did. Just not the part she wanted." Rome started to explain

"The producers said she's not right to play the lead. They want her to play the crazy granny."

"Oh, the crazy granny."

"Who dies in act one." Alexis continued

"Oh."

"Offstage," Rome added

"Oh. That's really not good," Castle replied rubbing his face, he paused when his phone went off, he checked the caller ID and made a disappointed face as he clicked ignore "No." he said mainly to himself, he walked over to the fridge and pulled out drinks for them and Alexis went to the drawer and pulled out some chop-sticks as Rome dished his dinner onto his own plate, before pushing the container to Alexis.

"You expecting a call?" she asked helping herself to some stir-fry vegetables, which Rome had bypassed.

"A callback, actually. I met a nice young woman at Fashion Week. I left her a message about an hour ago." Rome snorted back a laugh "what?" Castle asked with a grin

"A model?" Alexis asked, exchanging an amused smile with Rome

"Mmm-hmm," Castle responded, eating some noodles with his fingers as Alexis pushed the chopsticks towards him, she looked over at Rome who was doing the exact same thing and she rolled her eyes at her brother in disbelief.

"Gee, Dad. Picking up hotties while you're working a case?" Alexis asked, her grin getting bigger, handing Rome his kid's chopsticks.

"She picked me up, as a matter of fact. She said we knew each other from... somewhere." Castle explained,

"It's a curse, being so irresistible," Alexis added and Rome made a gagging noise, Alexis threw a fortune cookie at him, now Rome grinned and unwrapped the package before breaking open the cookie.

"Mmm." Castle started, he looked at Rome and grinned "what's it say Doc?" Rome rolled his eyes at the fortune as he shoved the cookie into his mouth, "or better yet wait till you're done chewing." Rome tried not to laugh, but couldn't help it and in doing so he choked a bit on the cookie, Castle reached over and gently patted his back until he stopped coughing.

"Tha…thanks dad," Rome coughed "anyways," he cleared his throat and held up the tiny slip of paper dramatically "your sister will give you a hundred dollars and clean your room for the next month," he said in a serious tone.

"It does not say that!' Alexis exclaimed pushing him and he stuck his tongue out at her.

"Does too!"

Castle rolled his eyes and chuckled, he reached over and took the piece of paper from Rome.

"It says: Not all closed eye is sleeping nor open eye is seeing." Castle read and Rome looked at him expectantly

"See why I like mine about Lex giving me money? At least that's straight forward and understandable," Rome argued "I don't get that one," he added pointing

"I think it means just because a person may not mention something doesn't mean they aren't aware of it. And just because someone seems like they know, doesn't mean they actually do. Does that help Doc?"

Rome shook his head and grinned

"That's okay though, I'd rather eat the cookie than worry about the gut."

Alexis made a face and decided to change the subject, so she went back to the discussion about their dad and fashion week.

"Anyways, what's this one's name? Lola? Bree? Tatiana?"

Castle chuckled

"Rina." He answered,

Alexis looked at Rome for a second. That name sounded familiar, why though?

"Did you say "Rina"?" Alexis repeated signing it again for Rome, she seemed to know exactly who their dad had met, even though Rome still wasn't sure.

"Yeah."

Alexis' grin got wider, Rome sat back with his carton of Chinese beef fried noodles and his kids' chopsticks chowing down as his sister asked a question and his dad answered, it was like a game of twenty questions and it was amusing as they went back and forth.

"Blonde hair?"

"Yeah."

"Bambi eyes?"

"Yeah."

"Cute little overbite?"

"Yeah."

Now Alexis started laughing

"Dad, you know Rina. She used to baby-sit me and Rome."

Now the light bulb turned on and Rome remembered Rina…he winced a little and looked at his dad waiting for that reaction

"She used to what?" Castle stuttered for a second and Rome started laughing

"Baby-sit." Alexis explained "Remember? We watched High School Musical together. Like, a million times."

Rome made a face

"oh god," he said with a groan "the girl who made me glad I could literally turn off my hearing 'cause of that stupid movie… man I hated that movie. It plagued my nightmares for years,"

Alexis rolled her eyes

"You are so overdramatic," she said with a sigh, "you always left the room when it was on."

"For good reason," Rome added

Castle reached over and took some of Rome's abandoned carton of noodle

"I- I vaguely remember a- a... Like, a gangly girl with stringy hair and braces names Katrina."

"That's the one. She did the whole ugly-duckling-to-swan thing, shortened her name and became a model. That's so funny that you ran into her. The world is really small."

"Yeah. Small and cruel."

As Rome helped clean up after dinner his mind drifted back with the mention of Katrina, aside from the High School Musical nightmare she was a pretty good babysitter, really nice and always let Rome stay up a few extra minutes, it was the first time she babysat for the Castle kids that most stuck out in Rome's mind.

Nothing eventful with Rina herself happened. Castle so rarely needed to utilize babysitters that when it came time to actually find one, he called Katrina, who was friends with Alexis' friend Taylor's older sister.

Having just turned thirteen she had taken courses in babysitting and had gone through a teen babysitting certification program and because the kids liked her so much, anytime Castle needed a babysitter, from then until Alexis insisted she was old enough, it was usually Katrina who came.

But that particular night, the first time she ever sat for them was the same time a big change happened in the Castle family's life.

April 2004

There was something in his closet, five-year-old Rome was sure of it. Something was creeping, slithering, and watching him. It had been doing so for at least an hour and now Rome was really sure it was getting ready to pounce on him, drag him to some scary monster/boogeyman world, he'd never see his sister and father again, they'd feed him only broccoli and carrots and the only thing to watch on TV would the shows that his sister liked, like Power Puff Girls or reruns of Lizzie McGuire.

Rome yelped and tried to hide under the covers, but that just made him feel more vulnerable, he could practically see the eyes watching him, did it have just a pair of eyes, or were there more than just a pair?

Was it hairy or was this monster covered in eyes, Rome had seen pictures of that particular monster and he really didn't like them at all.

Hairy monsters he could deal with, sort of…at least in the daytime, they were like Sully from Monster's Inc. and Rome had a stuffed Sully to look out for him, so the only time the hairy ones were scary was when they were coming out of his closet, but the monsters that were covered in eyeballs, those monsters were scary all the time and the thought that one might be coming out of his closet just made it even scarier, he didn't even like Mike from Monster's Inc. because his whole head was one gigantic eyeball.

Rome slowly peeked over the railing of his bunk bed and looked towards the closet, there…he could see gnarled hands holding the door, long claw-like fingernails tapping on the frame. He could practically hear it calling him 'Roman…Roman,' and he swore he could smell its stinky breath…

A piece of paper from his desk blew off the top and into the closet, Rome could see the flashing of it hitting the light from his nightlight.

Enough was enough, Rome was out of there, how was anyone expecting him to sleep when his room was clearly infested with a monster in the closet, worse than the monster under the bed infestation or at least his dad always said so.

Carefully he climbed out of his bunk bed carrying Balto and crept to his door, he could just barely hear the TV that was on downstairs as Katrina, the babysitter watched a movie. She had tucked Rome into bed an almost two hours before and he knew that she had probably definitely sent Alexis to bed by now.

It wasn't fair that just because Alexis was older she got to stay up till nine, while Rome having only just turned five had to go to bed at eight, just because Alexis was nearly ten that didn't mean anything and he wished Katrina had given into his pleading for ten more minutes, even though that was one thing she was apparently super strict about, bedtime.

But he did like Katrina despite the enforcement of bedtime thing, she was very nice, even though she wouldn't let him stay up late, she had read him three extra stories, got him a glass of milk when he asked for it and tucked him in nice and tight for bed.

So he didn't want to bother her, he knew she might be a little made that he was still awake and worse, wandering around two hours after he'd gone to bed. Eight seemed like it had been hours and hours ago and Rome was surprised to see the time on his watch read nine-forty five, he had just learned how to really tell time at school and Rome was very proud of himself, his dad was proud too, hence why one of his birthday gifts had been his brand new watch that he now wore.

Granted Rome took going to bed at eight just meant he had to be in bed, there was no actual order to go to sleep. In fact, nine times out of ten Rome simply took his L.L. Bean headlamp and read a book. His hearing tended to have more issues at night, but Rome was able to compensate for that by feeling for the vibrations so he always knew when someone was coming to check on him and usually could tell who it was.

If it was his dad, home from his date with Ms. Cowell, he wouldn't care if Rome was up past his bedtime, in fact Rome could usually count on his dad to sneak him out of bed once in a while if something really cool was on TV. But his dad wasn't supposed to be home just yet, he had been paying attention when Castle went over all the emergency numbers with Katrina and he remembered specifically his dad telling her that he wouldn't be home till at least eleven.

Rome knew he couldn't wait that long, with a monster in his closet, this called for the big artillery as his dad would say, this called for his sister.

Rome was pretty sure that Alexis was in bed, but she probably wasn't asleep, she would be reading for at least an hour, usually falling asleep with a book in hand. Maybe she could check his closet, maybe she had an extra monster deterrent.

After making sure he wouldn't be noticed, Rome tiptoed to his sister's room, he was just about to knock when he felt the door downstairs open and shut and heard muffled voices, one of which was his dad's.

Carefully Rome sat down on the steps and slid down one by one until he was near the landing. His dad's back was to the stairs, but Katrina could see him, she looked past Castle and winced when she spotted Rome, he waved at her, Castle turned to see what she was looking at and chuckled.

"Mr. Castle I am so sorry," she exclaimed "I put him to bed at eight I promise, and I checked on him an hour ago when I sent Alexis to bed, I thought he was asleep,"

"Katrina, don't worry, he's not the easiest child to get to stay in bed, it's something you'll learn."

Rome grinned sheepishly and shrugged

"Sorry," he said

"Katrina, there's a cab waiting for you downstairs, all paid for to take you home," he reached into his wallet and pulled out some money, "here you go, thanks so much."

"Anytime Mr. Castle and thank you," she looked at Rome again "and I will definitely be keeping a better eye on you next time Rome." She said with a wink, Rome waved, he scooted down the stairs again and Castle reached over to pick him up.

"Bye Rina!" Rome called as she shut the door. Once she was gone, Castle looked at Rome,

"So Doc, why are you up?" he paused "not that I'm surprised of course, I would've been surprised if I didn't see you awake."

"There's a monster in my closet," Rome explained as Castle carried him up the stairs,

"A monster kiddo?" Castle asked "what kind?"

"I don't know, I couldn't get a good look at it, but I'm pretty sure it's got hundreds and hundreds of eyes."

"That's a lot of eyes,"

"It is, and I saw its claws coming out of my closet, I could smell its stinky breath, and I know it was calling my name."

"Doc didn't you spray and anti-monsterus eliminator?" Rome shook his head "why not?"

"I'm out, there was a real nasty monster under my bed, yesterday daddy, he had a tongue that was this long," Rome held his arms out as far as they could go

"Well that's good reason to use the spray. Don't worry I'll make sure the closet monster leaves you alone tonight then I'll spray your room in the morning."

As they hit the landing at the top of the stairs, Alexis came out of her room rubbing her eyes sleepily, Rome looked past her, her light was off and he could see her blankets were kicked around, so she had been asleep and not reading like he expected.

"Daddy?" Alexis called "what's the matter with Rome?"

"Your brother is having trouble getting to sleep, but that's okay."

"How was your date with Ms. Cowell?" Alexis asked

"It was fun, nice dinner," Castle said carefully, he rubbed his chin "actually I'm glad you're both awake, there's something I want to ask you guys."

Alexis and Rome exchanged a look

"What did we do daddy?" Rome asked, Castle, carried him into Alexis' room and gently put him down on her bed as Alexis turned the light on.

"You guys didn't do anything," Castle replied with a chuckle "guilty much Doc?"

Rome shook his head

"No, just aking," Rome explained

"You mean asking Doc?"

"That's what I said, aking,"

"Anyways, tonight I went out with Gina,"

Rome and Alexis looked at each other

"We know," they said in unison

"Guys, I want to get your opinion on this,"

"Daddy, what's an ponion?" Rome asked

"An opinion kiddo is just what you think about something, it's always good to listen to other people's opinions about things."

"Oh,"

"How would…" Castle rubbed his chin, not sure why this was so hard to discuss. He wanted to make sure Alexis and Rome were okay with him proposing to Gina, their opinion meant the most to him, and if they didn't agree he wouldn't go for it. "How would you guys feel about making Gina part of the family?"

Alexis seemed to understand it quicker than Rome, clearly, she wasn't happy about that prospect, but didn't want to say anything, Rome, however, was so overtired Castle wasn't even sure that he was comprehending the entire conversation.

"Are you going to marry her daddy?" Alexis asked, Rome seemed to perk up a little, he liked his dad's publisher, she was very nice.

"Is Gina going to be our mommy?" Rome asked a little confused "like a second mommy, a mommy in Cali...Calo…in LA, and a mommy here in New York?"

"We already have a mommy Rome," Alexis informed him "Gina would be a stepmother."

Rome's eyes went wide, he knew all about step-mothers, thanks to his sister he'd seen Snow White and Cinderella more times than he could count, he'd read stories like Hansel and Gretel, the stepmothers were always mean to the step kids. Gina was very nice, but what if becoming a step mommy made a person mean?

"a stepmother?" Rome repeated looking at his sister

"Yes, Alexis I want to propose to Gina, and yes Romey if she says yes she'll be your stepmother."

Rome looked at Alexis again, she didn't look happy and Rome was confused, was he supposed to be unhappy too? He wasn't, he was excited that they might have a mommy in the loft. He loved his mommy, but since she lived so far away they didn't get to see her all the time, he'd never really known what it was like to have a mommy that he could see all the time. So why did Lexis look so mad?

"Can we think it over daddy?" Alexis asked, Castle seemed taken aback, but nodded.

"Of course, we can talk about it again at breakfast." He said, "how about a story before you guys go back to sleep?"

Rome and Alexis exchanged a look and nodded quickly, they loved their daddy's stories, he was a great mystery writer, they knew that, but he told really good kid stories too.

"Once upon a time in a faraway land,"

"Like New Jersey?" Rome asked and Alexis told him to shh, Castle bit back a chuckle and continued his story.

"Anyways in this far away land, not New Jersey, there was a good and just king, he lived in a castle overlooking his kingdom with his children; Princess Alexis and Prince Rome." Rome went to interrupt again to point out that the two kids had his and Alexis' names, but Alexis covered his mouth so what he was trying to say came out in mumbles. "The kingdom was very prosperous,"

Now Rome wiggled away from his sister, there were times where it was rude to interrupt, but there were also times, when it was something that had to be done.

"Daddy what's pospist?" He asked

"Prosperous," Alexis corrected "it means they aren't poor."

"Oh, okay keep going daddy," Rome said

"Where was I? Oh right, so the kingdom was very prosperous under the good king's rule. There was no hunger, no sickness, and there hasn't been a war that anyone alive could remember. It was a great place to live and to raise a family." Castle paused and tried not to chuckle, both Alexis and Rome were literally on the edge of Alexis' bed anxiously waiting for their dad to continue the story.

"Don't stop daddy!" They both exclaimed

"So the king and the princess and the prince were all very happy, but something was missing from their otherwise happy lives."

"Gram!" Rome exclaimed "they don't have a gram she needs to be in the 'tory!"

"Erm, uh of course Doc, gram lives in another castle and visits all the time. So no she wasn't what was missing."

"Oh, okay but can she be in the 'tory soon?"

"I'll see what I can do, anyways the children's mother Meredith was a beautiful actress. She loved Princess Alexis and Prince Rome with all her hearts, she grew restless with the every day of being a queen and decided after much thought and soul searching to cast herself to the wind and find herself. It pained her to leave her children but she knew they were safe and happy with their father, she did not want to cast her unhappiness on them. So she left the king and her children and set off for a land that was very, very, very far away. Princess Alexis and Prince Rome missed their mommy very much, but the king was very good at cheering his children up, and soon they were all very happy and content it being just the three of them and so it went, the years passing. But soon, the king began to feel lonely and he could see it in his children's eyes, they were lonely too. The king did not want to bring someone in to replace Queen Meredith, but rather someone who could help fill the void she had left. So the king asked his mother, Queen Martha to care for the children while he went on a quest to find someone who could be a wife and a mother."

"Yay gram is in the 'tory!" Rome exclaimed, clapping.

"Before the king left on his quest he promised his children that he would bring home the perfect mother for them. It was then that his mother cautioned him, reminding him about the trolls, imps, and other creatures that occupied the outer parts of the kingdom. She reminded him that they would try to change his mind and make him forget his promise to the children. The king swore nothing could make him forget, he always kept his word, especially regarding his children. As he was preparing to leave, the king took his children in his arms and once again promised them a mother. But Princess Alexis seemed upset by this promise, the king assumed it was her concern for his safety, so he reassured his daughter that the quest was not dangerous and he would be home with his children before they knew it. But it wasn't just the quest that the young princess feared, she remembered happy times with Queen Meredith more than her younger brother Prince Rome, she didn't believe her father when he said the new queen would not replace Queen Meredith, her and prince Rome had a mother, she loved them more than some stranger ever could. Just because she wasn't living with them in their beautiful castle did not mean she was replaceable. Besides Princess Alexis had read many tales about stepmothers, she believed them to be cruel witches who took pleasure in tormenting their step children, princess Alexis made the decision right then and there that no matter how nice the new queen appeared to be, she would not give her the chance to be mean to her or her little brother."

"I think Princess Alexis is just 'ascared" Rome concluded stealing a look at his sister, he didn't mean it to sound taunting, it was just the truth, he knew Alexis was afraid of a new mommy coming in, it would mean a lot of things would change in the loft, but Rome knew not all the changes would be bad changes. But his sister didn't like change at all, so that explained her worry.

"I think you're right kiddo" Castle replied "and that's okay, it's okay to be nervous or even scared about things changing, it's even okay to be scared about someone new coming into your life. I know Alexis was very worried when mommy and I told her that she was going to be a big sister."

Rome looked at his sister

"You didn't want me?" He asked, his bottom lip quivering

"I wanted you Rome, I just wanted to make sure..." Alexis paused it was rare for her to be at a loss for words, even at nine Alexis was very articulate.

"It was a change Romey, your sister was afraid that my love would change, that I'd be too busy with you to be there for her." Castle looked at Alexis sternly "which wasn't true right Pumpkin?"

"Right daddy," Alexis replied

"Which is what Princess Alexis also worried, she was afraid that a new wife meant her and Prince Rome would be forgotten. So Princess Alexis vowed that she would do all she could to make the new queen go away." Castle stopped and Alexis and Rome exchanged a quick look before looking back at their dad.

"Daddy don't stop!" Rome exclaimed

"Please daddy, did the king find a queen?" Alexis asked

"Was she mean or was she nice? Did Princess Alexis like her or did she try to scare her away?" Rome added

Castle chuckled and held up his hands,

"Not tonight kiddos, I'll finish the story tomorrow,"

"Aw, but daddy," both Rome and Alexis whined

"It's late you too

"Promise?" Rome asked

"Promise," he picked Rome off the bed and set him gently on the floor so Alexis could crawl under the covers, Castle leaned over and kissed the top of her head, tucking her in tight, before picking Rome back up and shutting the light off.

"When will you ask her daddy?" Rome asked as Castle lifted Rome carefully into the top bunk and tucking him in nice and tight.

"I don't know yet Doc," Castle replied, pushing Rome's bangs back "what do you think Doc, do you think it's a good idea?"

Rome nodded

"I think it's a really good idea daddy, it will be like having mommy here all the time, 'stead of just once in a while."

Castle winced at Rome's words, especially knowing how true they were. Alexis had at least gotten a few years of having Meredith in the loft with them, before the divorce, Rome had never experienced that, to him, mommy was someone who visited once in a while and called to check in once in a while. She was never a permanent figure that he could depend on, even if Alexis wasn't willing to admit it, Meredith wasn't a constant figure in her life either, it would be good for all three of them to have Gina in their lives.

"You know your mommy loves you very much kiddo, right?"

"I know," Rome replied yawning "how come Lex doesn't seem exsis…exi…" Rome frowned and looked to his dad for help

"Excited?" Castle guessed

"Yes daddy, that,"

"I don't know kiddo, this might be a little tougher on your sister than it would be on you."

"Why?" Rome asked, giving a big yawn as he rubbed his eyes

"Well, because she's older and…remember what I said in the story? How Princess Alexis was scared?" Rome nodded "well that's why she's not as excited, give her time Romey," he paused "but we'll talk about it in the morning okay?"

"K daddy," Rome sighed, Castle kissed his forehead goodnight. Rome was already drifting off to sleep, he felt his father's footsteps heading towards his door and felt the door close a little bit. Minutes ticked by and slowly Rome felt sleep coming to him, retelling the story in his mind and trying to think about how the story would end.


	14. Chapter 14

Alexis' schedule made it difficult for her to keep her promise to go with Rome to the precinct, her math club ended up having a rescheduled meeting for the following afternoon, the very day she had promised to go with Rome. Rome was flexible and understood how important school-related things were to his sister so the day after before they left for school, Alexis popped her head into Rome's room and told him no matter what they'd be going to the 12th.

So, once the afternoon announcements were finished, the grades were dismissed, and the bell had rung, Rome anxiously paced outside of the school waiting for his sister. She had promised him that she'd be right out after the final bell, she knew how much he wanted to go to the precinct. He had made his own thank you card and had dug into his mini safe to get five dollars, which he hoped was enough to buy her some flowers.

The money was sitting safe in his wallet and the card was in his folder in his backpack. Creative as he was, Rome had really struggled with the card for the detective; just saying 'thank you' didn't feel like enough and it felt really weird writing 'thank you for saving me'.

So he was really at a loss as to what to do as far as the words. He had drawn Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Owl, Tigger, Kanga, and Roo, figuring who didn't like them but had left the words off the card. His plan was to ask his sister for her opinion on the subway ride to the 12th.

If Alexis ever left the school.

Rome went back to pacing back and forth in front of the stairs, looking at his watch every once in a while, nodding and waving as friends and peers headed off. Had his sister forgotten about him? It had to be a first, Alexis never forgot him, ever, besides she had promised today was the day.

Maybe he should go back inside and look for her, see what was taking her. Rome looked at his watch again, maybe she was in trouble and needed him. He was her brother it was his job to look out for his sister like he had always done like he always would.

Rome had enough, he was going to look for his sister and find out what was taking her, and if she was okay.

He put a foot on the first step, when the doors to the school swung open and Alexis came out chatting with Paige and Lauren, Rome could tell she was completely oblivious that he had been waiting…not just waiting, but completely worried sick, but then again he really hadn't been waiting longer than five minutes, so he really couldn't complain.

"Hi, Rome!" Paige exclaimed

"Hi, Lauren, Hi Paige," Rome replied giving the girls a quick wave.

"Aw, look at you, how are you liking sixth grade?" Lauren added, both girls leaving Alexis and surrounding Rome, he looked around desperately for a way out a way to escape his sister's friends, but found none, not that he wasn't used to this.

"I, uh,"

Paige reached over and hugged him

"I can't believe you're a sixth-grader, it seems like just yesterday you were trying to hide from us when we played over at the loft."

"For good reason," Rome muttered "I hate playing school and house,"

Paige hugged him tighter

"But you were such a good student,"

"Most of the time," Lauren spoke up, "I do remember having to send him to the principal's office a few times. Right, Lex?" She nudged Alexis' shoulders and his sister grinned giving him an apologetic smile.

Rome instead rolled his eyes

"Could've been worse, you could've played tea party with us," Paige reminded him and Rome couldn't help the shudder, she was right, that would definitely be worse.

"Anyways, I'll talk to you girls later," Alexis said, pulling Rome's jacket "I promised Rome I'd take him somewhere and I don't want to break that promise a second time." Rome looked up at his sister and grinned, she hadn't forgotten "so I will message you guys tonight about that project, sound good?" Alexis asked

Paige and Lauren nodded, both reached over and hugged Rome tight, and when Rome tried to wiggle away from the girls, but it was like quicksand, the more he struggled to get away, the tighter they hugged.

"Gah!" He exclaimed, "can't breathe, suffocating, dying, help!"

"When did your brother get so overdramatic?" Lauren asked with a grin "is this a recent development or is it because the sixth-grade play tryouts are coming up and he's really excited to audition?"

Rome made a disgusted face

"What, you're not excited?" Paige asked genuinely surprised, "really?"

He shook his head quickly

"Heck no," he exclaimed

"I'm really surprised Rome, I figured you'd be excited about something like that," Lauren said with a smile, exchanging the smile with Alexis and Paige. "I heard that you guys were doing Peter Pan, you'd be great in the lead Rome, you get to fly."

Quickly Rome shook his head, he didn't care if he got the chance to fly, he was not going to be Peter Pan or any character for that matter.

"Right, anyways, come on Rome, let's go," Alexis said deciding that her brother had been tormented enough. She grabbed Rome's arm and gently pulling him away from her friends as they waved bye and headed towards the subway.

As they walked towards the station Rome was deep in thought, trying to think of what he could add to the card. He was so deep in thought, he hadn't realized his sister was calling his name…though part of that problem was his hearing was fading, it had been doing so well at school, but all of sudden even all normal noise of the city was growing softer.

He looked up at his sister who was looking at him with concern and he shrugged, tapping his hearing aid.

"Are you okay?" she asked

"I think they're going Lex," he explained and she smiled gently, giving him the sign for 'I'm sorry' "it's okay, I'm getting used to it."

"It's getting worse isn't it?" Alexis asked, signing as she went and he nodded "how much worse?"

"It's hard to tell Lex, I think dad said he's going to make an appointment with Dr. Winter for next week, he'll be able to tell us for sure, but I think it's getting close."

Alexis nodded and simply hugged her brother close, deciding to change the subject away from her brother's hearing, which Rome seemed grateful for.

"You have your metro card right?" Rome looked up at his sister and chuckled "what, what's so funny?" she asked

"You're the worst subject changer in history," he pointed out and Alexis shrugged "and yeah I have it." he paused "thanks for going with me Lex, I owe you,"

"It's no problem, it's a nice walk and you and I really haven't done something together, and besides if I didn't go with you, you'd just go off by yourself again and get into trouble."

Rome nodded and moved closer to his sister accepting his sister's hug, especially as the crowds surrounded the Castle siblings. This was a lot of people and they were all headed towards the subway. Rome followed close to his sister as they moved down the stairs and towards the turnstile, Alexis pulled her metro card out from her purse and nodded for Rome to take his out.

Alexis swiped her card first and pushed through the turnstile, but when Rome went to swipe his card, it beeped angrily at him. Figuring he had just swiped it wrong, he tried again receiving the same angry beep.

"Lex!" he cried "my card won't work," Rome didn't mean to sound panicky, but he couldn't help the quivering in his voice and couldn't stop his heart from picking up speed.

Alexis had moved away from the crowd that was moving through the other turnstiles to a spot where she could keep an eye on her brother. Seeing him struggle, she began to push through the crowd like a fish swimming upstream to get to him.

"When was the last time you used it?" she signed, knowing that there was no way Rome would hear her over the noise of the subway, he shrugged.

"Dad just gave it back to me the other day, I haven't used it since right before he took it," he called back, trying to move away from the herds of grownups that began pushing him so they could get through the turnstile.

Rome was pretty sure there was some chastising coming from these adults towards him, but thanks to his hearing being on the fritz and the loud screeching of the subway cars below, Rome couldn't hear a darn thing.

"Here," Alexis said reaching through the gates with her own metro card "use mine and we'll refill yours at the next station okay?"

Rome nodded and stretched his arm to take his sister's card. Once he had it, it was another adventure to get back to the turnstile, it was like a group of grownups had been unleashed onto the station and were all heading straight for the turnstiles.

"Excuse me, excuse me!" Rome said as loud as he dared trying to wiggle through the adults that had congregated "'cuse me I was here first." Rome hated to be pushy or even rude, but it was like the grownups couldn't hear him as they continued to push him out of the way. What made it even worse was the fact that Rome wasn't getting closer to the turnstile, he was somehow being pushed away from it.

Through the crowd, he could almost make out his sister's bright red hair so he tried to keep an eye on that as a kind of guide back, but the more he fought the further away he went.

He could see his sister frantically waving at him and he was pretty sure she was calling his name because he could see her lips moving and he could almost hear

"Rome!"

"Hey come on, I'm just trying to get to my sister, watch where you're going!" he exclaimed as a large foot came down on his. "Ouch!" he shouted "Lex!" Rome couldn't believe this was going on, he remembered his experience in the spring when he had walked home for the first time alone and had ended up on this very subway station, that particular time he had been swept up by a crowd of adults too, but they had been pushing him towards the turnstile, not away from it.

Before he could continue reliving that scary memory, Rome felt the crowd get even more persistent, he was actually having trouble staying on his feet, in a few seconds he was going to be knocked down and probably trampled

"Hey look out there!" a loud voice thundered through the crowd suddenly the crowd parted and a transit cop was standing there actually ushering people away. "Watch where you're going people there's a kid there!" She moved closer to Rome and guided him to the side of the pathway out of the crowd's path "Are you okay honey?" she asked "are you lost, can I call someone for you?" she continued without waiting for an answer.

Rome was trying to follow her lips and straining to hear what she was saying, but he was failing on both counts. Her loud booming voice had caught his attention, but now that she was closer she was speaking softer and she spoke like Detective Esposito, making it tough to read her lips.

Rome tucked his hair behind his ear to reveal his hearing aids.

"I'm partially deaf," he explained, "my sister is on the other side of the turnstile we got separated when my card wouldn't work."

The transits cop looked to where Rome was pointing and she could see a very worried teenage girl standing there. She looked back at Rome and smiled

"Come on honey," she said taking Rome's hand gently "I'll get you through to your sister," with Rome in tow, the officer parted the crowd again and brought Rome right to the turnstile, "do you have your own metro card?" she asked carefully

"I have my sister's," Rome replied holding the card up

"That'll do," the officer said nodding for Rome to head to the turnstile, he slid Alexis' card and sighed with relief that it worked, the officer followed him through the turnstile until they met up with Alexis who despite Rome's protests, hugged him tightly.

"Gah, Lexis!" Rome grumbled "can't breathe,"

"I take it, this is your little brother sweetie?" the officer asked and Alexis nodded

"Thank you," she said softly, on a normal circumstance Rome would've been mortified that he had to be rescued by a transit cop because of the crowds and that his sister was hugging him, but he was just grateful that the cop had gotten him out of there and he was back with his sister.

"Anytime kids, that's my job, you guys be safe now." The cop said patting Rome on the head and then Alexis, before heading back to her post.

"Well," Rome said with a grin "that was exciting,"

"Speak for yourself," Alexis replied returning the grin "I nearly had a heart attack."

Alexis wouldn't let go of Rome's hand until they were on the platform and even then she kept him close, afraid that they'd have a repeat of the turnstile. As they waited did the train Rome looked up at his sister and reached over to squeeze her hand gently.

"What was that for?" She asked

"Just my way of apologizing and saying thank you," Rome explained and Alexis looked at hi confused

"Thank you for what? And why are you apologizing?"

"For not getting mad at me just now and not panicking,"

"Hey, things happen," Alexis replied, "I was worried but I wouldn't be mad that was no one's fault."

Rome was about to reply when he felt the soles of his sneakers start to vibrate, the train was coming.

As it neared the station, Rome reached over and took his sister's hand, Alexis was surprised at first but accepted her brother's act of security and reassurance. They boarded the train when the doors opened, pushing through the mob and finding two empty seats.

"So you know where we're going right?" Rome asked looking up at the map for a second before looking back at his sister. She looked at him quickly with a look of shock.

"You're the expert at going all over the place on the subway I assumed you knew," she pointed out and Rome felt his stomach drop

"I...I, um," he stuttered trying to figure out an answer when he saw his sister trying not to grin and failing miserably "Lexis!" He exclaimed, "you really had me going!" She chuckled and hugged his shoulders "not funny, really not funny"

"Oh don't be a sour puss," Alexis replied "I never thought I'd have to tell you to stop taking things so seriously"

Rome rolled his eyes but gave his sister a half-grin

"So do you know what stop?" He asked timidly and she nodded

"I looked it up last night, I know exactly where we are going."

"That's good," Rome said with a sigh

"Well, given how you and dad are with following directions, I thought it would be best if I did the route map."

Rome couldn't give a sound argument to that so he just grinned and let it go. He reached into his backpack and handed Alexis the card, she looked at him confused for a second, then realized what it was.

"I'm stuck," he said, hoping that explained everything

"This is really good Rome,"

"Not the drawing Lex, and it's not that good, but that's beside the point, it's the message, that's where I'm absolutely stuck I don't know what to say."

Alexis chuckled a little

"That's not like you," she said gently "you've always been pretty good with words,"

"This is different, I'm not thanking someone for a birthday present Lex,"

"I know," Alexis replied, "sometimes the gesture speaks louder than the actual words, so I think leave the card as is and it'll be fine."

Rome nodded

"I guess it's not exactly something Hallmark has a lot of demand for huh? A 'thank you for saving me,' card?" he asked half-joking Alexis reached over and hugged him tightly, she didn't reply, Rome didn't need an answer, he was just comforted by his sister being with him.

When they finally neared their stop, Alexis once again took hold of Rome's hand and guided her brother through the crowds, heading for the stairs to take them back to the street, after the whole adventure near the turnstile, Rome was not going to argue with his sister in that regards.

"I think there's a flower store around the corner from the precinct, I can swing in there and grab the flowers," Rome spoke up as they walked down the street

"How much money did you bring?" Alexis asked,

Rome pulled out his wallet and checked, he hadn't really been sure how much a bouquet of flowers actually cost, he had just kind of guessed that they were maybe two dollars, five at the most, so he made sure he had about six dollars on him just in case, maybe whatever was leftover could go towards a nice pot to put them in.

Rome held his wallet up to his sister and gave her a look inside, quickly Alexis counted the money and groaned

"What did I bring too much?" Rome asked

"Um, I may need to spot you Rome," Alexis explained "or pull out dad's credit card," she added "are you sure you want to get the bouquet from a florist? It would still be a nice gesture if they came from one of the street vendors,"

Rome shook his head stubbornly he had seen the bouquets his dad bought, the 'I'm sorry' one with balloons and a huge thing of flowers, he certainly didn't want an 'I'm sorry' one, but those were special so the one he got Detective Beckett had to be equally as special, so no they couldn't just come from a random vendor on the street. Rome's stomach gave a growl, but speaking of vendors on the street, maybe he'd have enough left over to treat himself and Alexis to a hotdog or a pretzel.

"They're a bunch of flowers, that are basically dying the second they're cut," Rome explained to his sister "they can't be that expensive, I mean 'member that production Gram was in and people were throwing lots and lots of flowers at the lead lady's feet?"

Alexis chuckled, deciding she wasn't even going to argue with Rome on that, mainly because he had a point, but she also knew he was in for a rude awakening.

The florist shop not far from the precinct was quiet as the siblings walked in, a bell over the door rang alerting the florist to her customer's presence.

"Well hello dears, now can I help you today?" She boomed from down the hall, Rome looked at his sister, acting as a translator.

The woman who came out from the hall surprised the siblings and Rome was unable to keep the stunned looked off his face. She looked like she had just stepped out from the sixties.

Rome and Alexis had both seen pictures of Woodstock, Rome had been pulled in by Jimmie Hendrix and his electric guitar version of The Star-Spangled Banner, even when his hearing was on the fritz, the vibrations of that song were so strong he could usually feel them with no problem.

This lady looked like she belonged in the crowd of Woodstock. She had flowers in her hair and on her dress and wild hair that made her look like Ms. Frizzle from the magic school bus books. Rome exchanged a look with his sister who gave him a look that clearly said 'not a word' which he obliged, as much as he could.

"Um, my brother is looking for a bouquet of flowers," Alexis explained pushing Rome forward, he was really regretting picking this place, because he really didn't think he'd be able to take the woman seriously, and definitely didn't think he'd be able to speak to the woman without calling her Ms. Frizzle by accident.

The florist looked at Rome and got this sappy look in her eyes, she clasped her hands together and sighed as if Rome was the cutest thing she had ever seen.

"Flowers for someone special?" She asked him

"Um, it's a thank you gift for a friend of my dad." He explained and the woman's eyes got even sappier if that was possible.

"Well sweetie you've come to the right place, I've catered to some of the finest events in the city for floral arrangements, did you see the final year of the 20th-century celebration? That was all my work flowers for as far as the eyes could see, the nose could smell, and the ears could hear."

Rome looked at Alexis, then looked back at Ms. Frizzle, it was easy to read her lips, she actually spoke pretty clear, but he really was distracted by her style and even more so, her question.

"Uh, when?" he asked

"Oh silly, December 31st, 1998, we partied all night like it was 1999, which after a few hours it was."

"I wasn't even born yet," Rome explained

"Didn't stop me from attending the Hollywood premiere of The Wizard of Oz," she replied "what a wonderful time, Judy Garland and I had just a lovely conversation."

Rome looked up at Alexis, was this real or were they both imagining the whole thing, because Rome was pretty sure this was the weirdest dream he'd ever had.

"Uh, right," Alexis said politely "it is very nice to meet you ma'am, but unfortunately, we're kind of in a hurry ma'am,"

"Ah yes the way of the world now; rush, rush, rush, never time to stop and enjoy life, to stop and smell the flowers. Such a sad thing for the grownups of the world it breaks my heart that little children like you both are following the grownups of the world." She smiled sympathetically at Rome and Alexis "well onto business. What style of bouquet were you interested in?"

Rome hadn't thought about that, when his dad brought home flowers they were just exactly that, a bouquet of flowers, there were different styles, who knew?

"Um, a nice one?" he suggested, "with er, flowers?"

Alexis chuckled a little and stepped forward to explain to the florist what kind of bouquet they were looking for, she pointed out a few of the flowers that she thought would be perfect and as 'Ms. Frizzle' went around to gather up the flowers that Alexis requested, Rome grinned gratefully at his sister.

"What would you do without me?" Alexis asked hugging his shoulder

"Not be able to pick out flowers apparently," Rome replied grinning wider "and next time, you get to pick the florist." He paused "though I bet this place would make a great scene in one of dad's books."

Alexis looked over at the florist who was humming to herself, Rome, of course, wouldn't have been able to hear that, but Alexis did and she giggled a little before nodding, she could also see the potential and could see the wheels turning in Rome's imagination.

It took the florist only a few minutes to gather up what even Rome had to admit was a beautiful bouquet.

"Is there anything else you'd like to add to this?" she asked putting the bouquet gently down on the counter.

Alexis looked down at Rome and he shook his head, it looked perfect to him, so Alexis looked back at the florist and shook her head as well.

"No, this looks good," Alexis replied "thank you so much,"

Rome stepped up in front of his sister, she had helped him figure out at least the type of bouquet that would be a good gift for Detective Beckett, he was the one who should pay for it.

"So that will be $49.99." the florist said ringing up the sale, Rome's mouth dropped open as he looked at his sister in horror and she shrugged, clearly she didn't want to go with the 'I told you so' reply even though it was warranted and had Alexis been as immature as Rome typically was it would have happened.

Alexis reached into her purse and pulled out a credit card and handed it to the florist who swiped it, then looked at the name on the card.

"Castle, not Richard Castle the author?" the florist asked looking at the kids

"He's our dad," Rome explained carefully, it was always a hit or miss when it came to his dad's fans and how they would react.

Rome and Alexis had been dealing with the fans of Richard Castle their entire lives sometimes they were amusing sometimes they were scary, and sometimes they were just annoying. Like when they were out to dinner or doing something else as a family and a fan would come up to them and beg and plead for an autograph. Castle would give Rome and Alexis an apologetic smile and usually would sign whatever the fan asked. There had only been a handful of times where Castle refused to sign an autograph.

"He is such a wonderful author, you tell your father that he is welcome in my shop anytime." The florist exclaimed handing Alexis the slip to sign which she did.

"We will, and thank you so much for your help today," Alexis replied, Rome reached forward and picked up the flowers carefully

"Go in peace young ones," the florist said putting her hands together and bowing to them, Alexis grabbed Rome's shirt collar and pulled him out of the store. It wasn't until they were around the corner and heading towards the precinct did they burst out laughing.

"Oh yeah, definitely material for one of dad's books," Rome said between snickers "we've got to let him know about this place so he can check it out for himself."

"Where did you find that shop anyways?"

Rome shrugged

"I just googled flower stores and it was one of the first ones to come up." Rome paused and his grin got wider "did you notice that she looked like Ms. Frizzle?" he asked and Alexis put a hand to her eyes and shook her head

"I was trying not to notice, I'm glad you did though."

"That's my job," he said pausing for a second to look at the bouquet of flowers in his hands "how the heck can someone charge almost fifty bucks for a bunch of flowers!? It's criminal," he added

"And all you got was a small bouquet," Alexis pointed out "imagine if you got a vase with it,"

Rome made a face for a second but grinned as he thought of something.

"I wonder how much dad usually spends on his 'I'm sorry' bundle, 'cause if we just spent fifty bucks on a small thank you bouquet, he's gotta be spending hundreds."

They headed across the street towards the 12th. When they got inside, the officer at the desk looked at them suspiciously for a second.

"Can I help you kids?" he asked, Alexis nudged Rome forward

"We're here to see Detective Beckett," he explained holding up the flowers, the officer smiled and chuckled a little,

"Is she expecting you?" he asked

"Uh," Rome started to say before shaking his head "no, no she's not."

"Our dad volunteers here," Alexis explained, "he works with Detective Beckett."

The officer thought that over for a moment, then he looked at them a little closer, recognition hitting him.

"Hey you're Castle's kids!" he exclaimed they nodded "why didn't you just say so, I don't think your dad is upstairs I think he headed out for the day, but you guys are welcome to head up, I know Detective Beckett is up there and she can let you know where your dad is."

"Thank you," Alexis called, as they headed towards the elevator.

The first person they spotted when the elevator reached their floor was Detective Ryan, he didn't notice the Castle kids at first and actually did a double-take when he finally did spot them.

"Uh…Alexis, Rome," he said "hi guys what are you doing here?" he asked, clearly worried.

"Hi, Detective Ryan!" Rome exclaimed waving the flowers, Alexis grabbed them out of his hand just in case they went flying. Rome and Ryan chuckled at this.

"If you guys are looking for your dad, you just missed him, he left about half an hour ago."

"We know, we're actually here to see Detective Beckett," Rome explained holding up the flowers

"Okay, just please tell me your dad knows you're here?" Ryan asked Rome nodded at his sister

"He knows and that's also why I've got my sister with me."

"Right, uh, Beckett is over at her desk finishing up paperwork." Ryan said pointing at Detective Beckett "how are you guys doing?" he asked,

"Better," Alexis replied and Rome nodded agreeing with his sister

"That's good, it's good to see you guys" Ryan looked at Rome and grinned "and I'm glad you didn't come solo again kid. You had us all worried the last time you did that."

Rome returned the grin, but he didn't get a chance to respond because Detective Beckett noticed the gathering near the elevator and spotted Rome and Alexis. She put her paperwork down and walked over to the trio.

"Alexis, Rome, hi guys, is everything okay?" she asked her face full of concern as she hugged Alexis then Rome, Rome hid the flowers behind his back, hoping Beckett hadn't seen them.

"Everything's fine," Alexis started "Rome has something for you and he asked me to come up here with him."

"Something for me?" Beckett asked, clearly confused "honey that's very thoughtful, but I really don't need any gifts,"

Rome held out the flowers to the Detective and Ryan chuckled at how red in the face Beckett got at the sight of the flowers as she took them in her hands.

"They're not much," Rome admitted, he knelt down and dug through his backpack to pull out the card which he also handed to the detective.

"Oh Rome this is adorable, I love Winnie The Pooh characters, especially Tigger, how did you know?"

Rome grinned and shrugged

"Just a guess,"

"What's the occasion?" Espo asked coming out of the break room, he made a beeline for the gathering and fist-bumped Rome and Alexis before turning to Beckett waiting for an answer. "I know it's not your birthday and it's not Valentine's Day, so what's the occasion guys?"

Rome felt a wave of guilt wash over him, he had been so focused on getting flowers to Detective Beckett he had forgotten that she didn't act alone. He remembered Detective Ryan being there with his dad, unlocking the cage that held him, protecting him, and his dad from M. He remembered Detective Esposito and Detective Beckett arresting M and all of them coming to the hospital to visit him…Dr. Parish too.

How could he have forgotten about all the people that had played a part in saving his life, how could he get something for Detective Beckett to thank her and not have anything for the others?

"Uh, I…" He stuttered, Beckett saw the guilt on Rome's face and the worry in his eyes and she smiled at him gently.

"Rome brought flowers and drew this for all of us as a thank you." She explained to Espo and Rome looked at her and smiled back.

"Thank you for what kid?" Ryan asked

"I…I really never got a chance to thank you guys for coming to get me, dad's told me some of what was going on, on this end and I couldn't be more gran…great…" he groaned and looked at his sister for help signing the word for 'grateful'

"Grateful," she translated and looked at the three detectives "and that goes for me too," she said over Rome's head where he couldn't read her lips. "You guys saved my brother…and you saved my dad." She added.

Beckett knelt down so she was looking up at Rome and Alexis

"You're welcome will never cover it and you guys do not have to thank us, nothing would have kept us from finding you Rome." she did her best to sign the sentence and it clearly meant a lot to Rome that she did so, he didn't even hesitate as he jumped forward to hug her.

Beckett was taken aback for a moment, but recovered and hugged him back as Alexis joined in. When Beckett let go of the siblings, Rome and Alexis turned to Ryan and Esposito and hugged both of them too, which neither detective was expecting, but accepted.

Beckett insisted on driving Rome and Alexis home instead of letting them take the subway, it was only late afternoon, but she reminded them that the subways would be packed with commuters heading home and it was just easier and would make her feel better if she drove them. Though they invited her to come up to the loft, she declined; the team had been working on the model's murder for what felt like weeks and all Beckett wanted to do at that point, all she really needed was a nice hot bath, but she promised she would try and swing by the loft to visit in the near future.

As expected, Castle was home when Rome and Alexis walked through the door, he grinned at them from the kitchen where he was making dinner and nodded for them to set the table for dinner.

"Did you guys have fun this afternoon?" he asked "A great adventure?"

"It was an adventure all right," Rome said with a grin. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his metro card "it was empty,"

"He got sucked up into the sea of subway riders," Alexis clarified "he had to use my card to get through,"

"Oops," Castle replied "sorry about that Doc, we can refill it tomorrow after school,"

"Alexis showed me how to do it," Rome said proudly

"That's great, so, tell me what you guys were up to today that required you to go to the 12th?" Castle asked Rome reached into his pocket, pulled out the receipt from the florist and handed it to his dad who looked it over. Rome winced and waited for the shock of how much they spent, but that seemed to be the last thing on Castle's mind. "Flowers Doc?" he asked

"Thank you present for Detective Beckett," Rome explained "I never really go to say thank you to her or the rest of the team for what they did to help you."

Castle put the receipt down and ruffled Rome's hair

"You two are such great kids I don't know where it comes from,"

Rome and Alexis exchanged a grin

"We had a great teacher," Alexis explained handing Rome the placemats as she carried the plates and silverware to the table.

"Mr. Rogers?" Rome guessed and Castle threw a roll at him, which he caught and shoved in his mouth with a grin.

"Funny kiddo, real funny." He paused "did she like it?"

Rome nodded

"I think she did,"

"He feels bad that he got Detective Beckett flowers, but didn't have anything to give to everyone else," Alexis spoke up and Rome shot his sister a look, Castle chuckled and walked over to Rome, he picked his son up and plunked him on the counter so they were eye-level.

"Doc, is that true?" Rome shrugged "Doc?" Castle sighed "look kiddo, I know I've always told you guys that if someone does something nice for you it's just out of respect to write them a thank you note or give them a small thank you gift." Rome nodded "but can I tell you something?"

"What?"

"If I know Detective Beckett, Detective Ryan, and Detective Esposito, just knowing that you're home and you're safe, something tells me that is a greater thank you than anything anyone could come up with."

"Really?"

"Really," Castle replied

"Okay, dad,"

"That's my boy, and I am proud of you," he finished, going back around the counter to finish making dinner. Rome jumped off the counter just as the door swung open. Martha waltzed inside, she was definitely happier looking than she had been a few days before when the producer told her she was going to play the crazy granny.

"Good evening, my dears." She exclaimed

"Hey, there," Alexis called

"Hi gram!"

"You look in brighter spirits. What's changed since this morning?" Castle asked

"The play that I passed on, the producers came back with a better offer. I was just at the Dorchester signing my contracts."

Rome looked at his sister and signed

'Gram passed on the play?'

Alexis shrugged, must have been news to her as well

"So, you got the lead?" Castle asked looking at the kids for a second

"Well, no, I still play the crazy granny," Martha replied

Alexis and Rome exchanged another look

"But you... You don't die." Alexis guessed

"No, still die."

Rome took his chance to guess

"Better pay?" he asked

Martha waved her hand at him and laughed a little

"Peanuts." She explained, now Castle, Rome, and Alexis all exchanged a look with one another.

"Alright," Castle said "we give up, so what's the better offer?"

Martha swooned with delight

"They have rewritten the script so that I die onstage. My death closes act one. It's better than the lead, really. Granny's the bravura role."

"In art, as in life." Castle said carefully

"Aw," Martha replied hugging him, Alexis and Rome both ran over to Gram to hug her tight

"I'm so proud of you," Alexis said and Rome nodded

"YAY gram! I'm proud of you too!" He exclaimed

"Aw. Thank you. Thank you, my babies." Martha hugged them tighter. Just then the lights in the loft flashed a few times as the doorbell went off. "Are we expecting company?"

"Uh, that's Rina." Castle explained

"Oh, of course. Your date." Martha replied kissing the top of Rome's head as Alexis ran to the door to answer it

"Not my date," Castle replied. Even with his hearing acting up, Rome could hear the giggling and literal squealing as Alexis opened the door and Rina came into the loft.

"Hi!" Alexis exclaimed

"Hey!" Rina exclaimed back "Ready for a High School Musical marathon?"

"I'm so ready," Alexis replied and Rome groaned loudly

"Oh god no…not that insanity again!" he grumbled looking at his dad for help. Martha smiled at her son and grandson and Castle ruffled Rome's hair.

"Hey, Rina," Castle called

"Hi, Mr. Castle. Oh, Rome look how big you've gotten! You're so adorable!" Rome looked at his dad expectantly and Castle chuckled, gesturing for Rome to respond

"Er…hi Rina…" Rome called as his sister and Rina headed up the stairs giggling and chatting the entire way.

Martha and Rome looked at Castle expectantly for an explanation

"Color me shocked, but apparently the modeling world isn't all sexy clothes and fun parties. It occurred to me that if Jenna McBoyd had someone looking out for her a little bit, she might still be alive today. So, if Rina needs a friend, she knows she's got one."

"Oh, my son, the big softy. And don't worry, I know you have an image to protect. Your secret's safe with me."

Rome grinned

"But not with me," he said with a grin, which faded as he glanced up the stairs and shuddered in horror, he could only imagine what was going on up there and knew it was only a matter of time before the musical portion of the movie started and he knew by the time he went up to his room for bed, it was going to be in full force.

"Love you too Doc," Castle chuckled Rome turned to his dad and looked at him desperately

"Dad, please I beg of you can we watch House on Haunted Hill? I need to keep my sanity! The alternative is your only son goes mental."

"You get the movie ready and we'll eat dinner in my office and we'll prevent your oncoming psychosis by watching a movie about a haunted mental institution,"

"You're the only one who understands me dad," Rome replied with a grin, running off to get the movie set up.


	15. Chapter 15

x-x-x-x

"Now, I want a set of sidekicks, keep going until I say stop, same leg. Remember to keep the rhythm as you're going." Sensei Kai instructed walking around his class of fifteen students before walking to the front of the dojo. "On one, Lift leg, two kick and let your voice be heard, three, foot back on the floor, then we go again." He paused making sure all eyes were on him "let's give it a try I want you guys in sync here…on my count and one, two, three, down, one, two, three, down. Keep up the great work, manage the count everyone. One…two…three…down…"

Kai nodded his approval of his students as he walked through the line, mindful of the fifteen feet that were kicking in unison. Though he tried to keep all fifteen, nine, ten, and eleven-year-old kids in his sight at all times, he was most watchful of Rome.

Rome in turn was just focusing on his kicks and maintaining his balance. This was his first time back in karate class in what felt like years, in truth it had been only a few weeks.

His dad had kept him out of class for a couple of weeks his kidnapping, wanting him to recover from his kidnapping just a little more before he jumped back into such a physical sport. Then the whole falling out of bed issue occurred, so once again Rome was benched, but now, Rome was back in class and very happy with that particular set up.

In between coming home from the hospital and his first-class back, Rome had been trying to do some of the stretching exercises that he had been taught for karate when he first started the sport, just to make sure that he was ready when his dad decided he was good to go back. It seemed to be paying off a little bit because he was feeling only a little sore, at least at first.

After a few minutes of kicking, Rome's muscles were beginning to burn, but he did his best to ignore the pain, mainly because ironically it felt good to have burning muscles, he knew it meant he was working hard.

Rome had always been a very athletic kid, even though he didn't play any team sports like baseball or soccer he could play them. He just loved karate, it was a different kind of sport and even though it wasn't really a team sport you still had to be a team player with it, and even though his whole body was beginning to hurt, he wanted to fight through the pain and not give up, prove that he was back to normal.

Rome wanted everything to be back to normal and without going to karate three times a week, life hadn't felt normal at all. But now being in class surrounded by his fellow white, yellow, orange, and purple belts, Rome felt like things were finally back to normal.

The class had welcomed him back without any questions as to where he had been for nearly four weeks and he had settled right back into class as if he hadn't gone anywhere. Now he wanted to work as hard as he could to catch up to the other three purple belts in class, in hopes that soon he could take the next belt test and go for his blue belt.

Rome let out a solid battle cry as he lifted his leg as high as he could kicking the air, he glanced over at Sensei Kai who gave him a thumbs-up, before mouthing 'you good?' Rome nodded and grinned giving the air another good kick before Sensei Kai had them switch to kicking with their left leg. Now Rome started to feel not only a little more pain but also a wave of unbalance.

Being left-handed, he had also figured he was left-footed too because he had no trouble balancing on his left foot to kick with his right, but now standing on his right foot he was wiggling a lot. Rome's hearing loss had always given him a poor sense of balance and his sore legs, unused to the work they were being subjected to all blended together, and a few times, Rome nearly toppled over and had to use his arms to balance himself out.

But every time Rome felt like he was going to fall over or felt pain shoot through his tired legs, he just kept remembering everything that he had been through since his last karate class and each memory, everything that had happened to him when he was kidnapped and how he had been used as a pawn to punish his father, it just made him keep kicking, keep fighting.

Even so, after few minutes of kicking, with his muscles on fire, Rome was pretty glad when Sensei Kai finally called out:

"And break," He clapped his and smiled with pride at his class. "That was awesome everyone." He looked around at the handful of kids "okay everyone take a seat, I want us to work on some deep breathing exercises before we end class tonight. Sound good?" he asked the class "Yes Sensei!" they replied in unison, even though everyone was thinking the same thing, they were going to meditate and meditation was always boring. Kai nodded and looked over at Rome and discreetly signed 'doing okay?'

Rome nodded and gave Sensei Kai the sign for okay. Rome had taking karate since he was five and all five years had been spent at the same dojo with the same teachers and almost all the same classmates.

Most of the instructors knew a little ASL, but Sensei Kai who owned the dojo and taught most of the classes had been teaching Rome from the day and he was very proficient in ASL because his younger sister had been born deaf and he had learned ASL at an early age to communicate with her.

Neither Castle nor Rome at the time had known that Rome's new karate instructor could sign so well. They had just been visiting different dojos to see which had a program Rome felt most comfortable in and the Lotus Kempo Karate Dojo just happened to be next on the list.

While they were waiting to meet with the owner, the pair practiced signing, which was still a relatively new thing with the family. Rome had only been going to Lexington School for the Deaf for less than two months and like the school had promised Rome and Alexis had pretty much perfected it. Castle was doing his best as was Martha, but he took every opportunity he could to practice. So when Sensei Kai had come out of his office he was very surprised and even delighted to see them signing.

When father and son found out that the owner/teacher could sign, that sealed it for the pair, they had found the perfect dojo for Rome and he started classes the following day. Within a few weeks, Rome had found his perfect niche for an afterschool activity. His sister had lots of clubs and activities that she loved and now Rome did too.

Sensei Kai had even modified the class to make it more accessible for Rome. If Rome was having a bad hearing day, he'd let Sensei Kai know in the beginning of class; Kai would have one of his higher belts lead the class as he acted as an interpreter if Rome really needed him to. Even on good hearing days, Rome could always count on Sensei Kai to sign whatever instructions he had as he spoke.

Any of the mediation sessions they did, especially the ones that utilized the students focusing on his voice, Kai gave a pre-description of what he would be asking the students to visualize before he asked them to close their eyes.

If the meditation revolved around a count of any sort, Kai would tap his bo on the floor, so Rome could feel the vibration and focus on his breathing instead of keeping track of what count his classmates were on. It was small things that didn't seem like much but made things a lot easier for Rome when his hearing was acting up.

"That's what I like to hear. Everyone should be sitting on their knees, hands in your laps, feet together, great. Now when I tell you to, I want all eyes closed and we're just going to focus on our breathing tonight. We'll all take a strong deep breath in, hold it for five long seconds then exhale. I want everyone to imagine that you are high on a mountain, breathing in that fresh clean mountain air and it's rejuvenating your mind and your body, and every time you exhale you are creating new clouds that surround the mountain, expelling any tension or stresses. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes Sensei!" everyone answered

"Okay, I'll keep the count with taps, one tap for each second I want you to hold that deep breath in. One tap you inhale deeply, two, three, and four taps continue to hold, fifth tap exhale." He paused and looked out at the class of nine, ten, and eleven-year-olds and nodded. "Eyes closed, let's go."

Rome closed his eyes and waited for the vibrations, which after a second or two he felt, he felt the one tap and took a deep breath in, then counted the taps in his mind, two, three, four, and five he exhaled.

As he did this, he remembered Sensei Kai's other instruction the mountain top and imagined a snowcapped mountain top that he had just hiked up to the very top and he immediately felt relaxed, the pain in his legs faded into his subconscious as he focused on the mountain and the tapping noise that reminded him of the thrush in the Hobbit knocking on the door like in the book and cartoon and then he wasn't in his Dojo anymore, he was on the Lonely Mountain, searching for a way inside the mountain to face the dragon Smaug.

Slowly, with his mind deep in Middle Earth, everything that had happened to him faded away, it wasn't important anymore, he didn't need to focus on the kidnapping, on M or Mr. Carlson, he focused on the vibrations on the floor with each tap and with each tap the anger faded away as well any lingering pain or fear seemed to turn into harmless fluffy clouds that floated away from the side of the Lonely Mountain. Rome could still see them, but they couldn't hurt him anymore and Rome was very glad that Sensei Kai had chosen mediation as the end of the class, it was something he hadn't realized how much he needed.

Sensei Kai always tried to end class with something he knew would interest the kids. Sometimes it was meditation to help them relax after a long workout, sometimes it was a friendly sparring match, or sometimes he would tell them about Kempo karate and the dojos and temples around the world he'd had the privilege to visit and show off things he had brought back.

Rome had never really enjoyed the meditation, to him, it was a boring and in some cases frustrating part of the class, he really enjoyed the sparring matches and thought Sensei's stories were awesome, but now he actually understood why meditating was so useful and why it was so important in karate.

Rome was so focused on his breathing and the 'mountain' he almost missed the soft footsteps next to him, Sensei Kai knelt down and tapped Rome's shoulder twice. This told him that they would have two more rounds of the deep breathing exercise before he would have everyone open their eyes.

To Rome, who usually thought meditation was pretty boring, he was a little disappointed that this particular session was coming to a close. But he knew that he could probably use this mediation anytime it wasn't like the regular mediation they did, this he could even do in class when he was stressed.

When it was finally over, Rome slowly opened his eyes pleased that he had kept the count even though he couldn't hear the tapping and barely felt it.

"Okay, everyone on their feet," quickly the kids scrambled to their feet "nice job everyone, now show of hands who thought that was better than some of the other meditation we've done in the past?"

Rome like his classmates put his hand right into the air and Sensei Kai chuckled, nodding his improvement.

"Yes Sensei!" the class exclaimed and Sensei Kai gave them another nod "Good to hear," he moved to the front of the class, Kai put his right fist against his left hand's flat palm and bowed to his students, who in turn returned the gesture. Once they had bowed to their Sensei he smiled at them and nodded, the class as a whole turned to the wall where the American flag hung and they bowed to that as well. They then turned back to Kai who nodded again, giving the kids silent permission to remove their belts, each belt was carefully unwrapped from their waist and then folded them up, once the belts were folded carefully and tight Sensei Kai dismissed the class. "Great class everyone, I want to see some of my purple belts before you head home, dismissed!" He called.

There was the usual mad scramble as the kids headed for the locker room, well the boys made the mad scramble, the six girls in the class were a little more mature about the whole thing as they skipped towards the girl's locker room. Rome joined his friends in the dash for the locker room but stopped when Sensei Kai put a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up at his teacher and grinned, even though he was a little curious as to why the teacher had stopped him.

"Sensei?" he asked, Kai, smiled and patted Rome's shoulder

"It's good to have you back in class Rome," he explained

"It's good to be back," Rome replied, "I was going crazy at home, I missed karate."

"That's good to hear kiddo," Kai said "how have you been feeling? Your dad told me about the arm, all better right?" he asked "you seemed to be okay during warm-up,"

Rome nodded

"Doing much better, dad was afraid I broke it or dislocated my shoulder, luckily it was just a stupid sprain,"

"You are lucky, I dislocated my shoulder when I was a little older than you are, and believe me it is not fun." Kai's face went serious, he knelt down so he was eye level with Rome "your dad also told me about what happened. I know you've probably had everyone telling you this, but if you need anyone to talk to Rome, I'm here."

Rome nodded

"I'm actually doing better with that too," he paused "and honestly getting back to karate tonight helped a lot, especially the meditation. I felt more relaxed than I have in weeks, I like that exercise, it was calming."

Kai raised an eyebrow, unable to keep the surprise off his face "Never thought I'd hear you praise a meditation exercise," he replied with a chuckle "from day one you have never been shy about voicing your opinion on it being boring,"

Rome shrugged

"I can't explain why, but like I said, this time was different. Maybe it was just 'cause I was so happy to be back in class. I missed it." Rome paused again, unsure how to hint the next question on his mind, he took a deep breath and looked up at Kai "And I was worried I was going to miss my next belt test," Kai sighed on that one and Rome understood, "I'm way behind aren't I?" he asked

"Not way behind, only a few weeks behind Hannah, Colby, and Vikrum. But I was planning on scheduling their belt test next week and Rome I'm sorry you're not ready for it," Rome couldn't hide his disappointment as his shoulders fell "but, I've decided that I'm going to push the test back another week, Hannah was out for nearly two weeks with the flu so she has some catching up to do, and Colby and Vikrum both need a little more practice as well." He paused "We'll work as hard as we can to get you caught up and hopefully the four of you can take your belt test in two weeks, but Rome I don't want you to be disappointed if it doesn't happen in two weeks. I can promise, we will try to make sure you have your blue belt by Halloween."

Rome made a face, he couldn't help it,

"But Halloween is so far away, it's like a month away,"

Kai chuckled

"Try three weeks there kiddo," he patted Rome's shoulder again as he stood up "besides, knowing how hard you work I'll be willing to bet you'll be ready with the others. I'll even print out some of the exercises for your belt test and you can practice them at home, how does that sound?"

Now Rome grinned as he nodded

"Excellent!" he exclaimed

"Good, now grab your stuff and head out, I bet your dad's waiting for you. I'll print that stuff out for you for the next class okay?" Kai finished, Rome nodded again and bowed to his Sensei, before ducking into the locker room to change and grab his belongings.

Before leaving the wide-open classroom portion of the dojo, Rome as with the rest of his classmates bowed respectfully to the room. He darted down the short hallway to the waiting room where the parents tended to congregate to pick up their kids.

Castle was reading a magazine and looked up with the rest of the parents as the pitter-patter of fifteen pairs of bare and socked feet came running down the hall.

He stood up and had his arms open as Rome darted in and jumped into his dad's arms dropping his sneakers and backpack to the floor.

"Hey, Doc!" Castle exclaimed hugging him tight for a moment before gently putting him on the floor "how was class?" he asked signing as he went, Rome grinned and gave his dad two big thumbs up. "You felt okay, no pain?"

"Good kind of pain dad," Rome replied "working hard pain,"

Castle winced a little, hoping Rome hadn't seen him, he knew how much Rome loved karate and how good at it he was, but that didn't stop Castle from worrying that he had let Rome go back to the sport too early, even if Rome said it was a good kind of pain, he didn't want his kids in any kind of pain.

"How are you feeling now?"

"Good," Rome explained "we did this new mediation exercise and it really helped, I think I might try it at home too," he turned and waved to some of the other students as they pulled on their sneakers and headed out into the crisp fall air with their parents until the only ones left were Rome's fellow purple belts and their moms or dads.

Sensei walked into the waiting area with the other three purple belts, all three with their heads down, clearly just as disappointed about the belt test as Rome was.

"Ah good, you guys are all still here," Kai said addressing the grownups and kids all at once "I've had the chance to speak to all four of our purple belts. Myself and some of the other instructors have decided that we're going to hold off on the next belt test for these guys. The last few weeks have been crazy for all four of them and I want to make sure they're all ready for the test so I'm going to give them an extra couple of weeks to get set." The parents all seemed to agree with that as they murmured amongst themselves, nodding.

"When will the test be?" Hannah's mother asked

"I'm going to try for the twenty-second, the others and I will be observing everyone to see how much progress has been made and then we'll go from there. I'm also going to have a print out of the techniques and exercises that they will need to know for their test, I'll have that next week so everyone can practice." The four kids tried not to look disappointed, but it wasn't lost on anyone that they were. "Trust me, you guys are not the first class who needed some extra time and you will not be the last. I never move students up, whether it be an entire belt class or individual students until I know for a fact that they are ready to do so. So I will see you guys next week, and we'll get to work okay?" Kai asked, this time addressing the kids, who all nodded slowly in unison.

Rome stayed close to his dad as they walked down Warren Street, it was a good twenty-minute walk from the dojo to the loft and as much as Rome loved walking through the city with his dad, he was happy when Castle waved down a cab to take them home. He climbed into the minivan-like cab and Castle slid in next to him, giving the driver their address.

"I'm glad you let me go back to class dad," Rome said softly and Castle grinned nodding "

I'm glad I did too, you definitely seem more relaxed," he paused and his grin got wider "maybe you can teach your sister that meditation exercise,"

Rome chuckled and shrugged

"I think it may take more than that to get Lex to relax," he admitted "but I can try,"

Castle paused and sighed a little

"Speaking of relaxing, uh, mom called," he said carefully "before I left to come to pick you up."

Now Rome perked up a little, he hadn't spoken to his mom in weeks, not since coming home from the hospital. She had sent him stuff of course; get well cards, toys, things like that, but what Rome had been hoping for was her flying out to New York to see him. He knew his dad liked to keep the mom visits to a minimal because she drove him crazy, but Rome also knew his dad would also make an exception on that rule, if Rome really wanted to see her, not just on the video phone or through skype, actually hug her.

But of course, she had her movies or shows, whatever kept her in LA and not in New York. Rome never really asked what was so important across the country, he was used to it and used to his mom, even so, that didn't change the fact he missed her, more than he really admitted aloud. He wasn't used to mom calling out of the blue though and his first instinct was that something was wrong.

"Is she okay?"

Castle seemed taken aback by that being the first thing Rome asked, especially when he looked at his ten year old and saw the mounting concern on his face.

"She's fine kiddo, she just figured she hadn't spoken to you or Alexis in so long she wanted to check on you guys, see how you were doing."

"Oh," Rome said softly, he looked up at his dad "is she, um, coming to New York?" he asked trying not to sound hopeful. Castle's face instantly went sympathetic as he hugged Rome's shoulders tight

"No Doc, she's not she was just calling to check up on you guys. I told her I was on my way to pick you up at karate and that you could call her when we got home."

Rome thought this over for a moment then sighed

"Did she call on the regular phone or the videophone?"

Castle was a little hesitant on that one, mainly because he knew his answer would tell Rome if Meredith had called looking specifically to speak to him or if she had called on a phone that would be nearly impossible for him to use.

"Romey she called on-" Castle started to say but Rome grinned at his dad, albeit a forced grin, but a grin nonetheless

"It's okay dad," he said, "I know she tries, sorta."

The cabbie pulled to the curb outside the loft and Castle handed him the fare and a tip, before sliding out, Rome right behind him. They greeted Michael the doorman with a wave and headed to the elevator. Once inside Castle turned to Rome

"Doc, you know your mom loves you very much right?"

"I know she does dad," Rome replied with a shrug Castle reached over and hugged Rome's shoulders tight

"You're a good minion,"

"I try,"

"And you succeed Doc,"

"So how was Detective Beckett?" Rome asked trying to change the subject away from mom, it must have worked because Castle's eyes lit up with glee "Did she like the book?" Rome guessed, assuming that was what had made his dad do a complete 180.

Castle grumbled for a second, his excitement fading away momentarily

"No, she keeps pulling my leg about it, but I can guarantee by weeks end she will have at least started it and she will love it."

"Er, okay," Rome said, "if that's not the reason for the grin then what is?"

"The case we're working on, it is so awesome you'd love it, Romey."

"Dead body involved?" Rome asked and Castle nodded as if that was obvious, which of course it was. "Yeah then I'll pass, thanks."

"I will never understand how a kid who loves all things scary, especially horror movies, zombies, and murder mysteries has such an issue with dead bodies."

"Dad," Rome explained, "they're dead bodies, not ghosts, not zombies, not even Frankenstein, just people who were alive and aren't anymore, that's just creepy." He shuddered.

"You make a valid case young one." Castle admitted and gave Rome a slight grim "so does that mean you don't want to hear about said dead body?"

Rome returned the grin and laughed

"I just don't want to see it, but of course I want to hear about it. What's the case about?"

"I've got two words for you my little minion," Castle started, catching Rome's attention again "polar explorer."

Rome tilted his head to the side, a little confused.

"Um does the NYPD have juris…Jurdis..." Rome frowned at the word and looked to his dad for help, Castle smiled and hugged Rome's shoulders

"Jurisdiction?" He guessed and Rome nodded

"Yeah do they have-" Rome didn't even try to fight to spell the word, instead he fingerspelled it "in the North Pole?"

Castle burst out laughing and Rome frowned a little, he knew his question was funny, but he was also being serious about it. Castle saw the look on Rome's face and smiled gently

"Oh Doc I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing because I asked Beckett the exact same thing,"

Rome shrugged apologetically

"Oops," he said

"Great minds think alike kiddo," castle replied "anyways what I meant by a polar explorer was this," Castle reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone. Rome couldn't help his grin.

"I thought Beckett told you no more borrowing evidence."

"Four your information evidence police, Beckett let me take this." Castle paused "I promise, no dead body okay?"

Rome nodded and watched the video his dad showed him, a guy with a scraggly beard that reminded Rome of a pirate was sitting in a tent with wind and what looked like snow flying around him. His beard and the exposure of the second-hand video made it tough for Rome to read his lips, so Castle translated, pausing it every few seconds to explain what the guy was saying.

Rome watched as a shadow appeared in the background and he wasn't even paying attention to the pirate at this point, he was watching the shadow, it was like watching a slasher movie, where the audience could see the bad guy, but the victim stupidly couldn't see him until it was too late. Castle sped through the actual murder so Rome didn't have to see that and played the aftermath after the video camera had fallen. The guy wasn't in the North Pole, he was actually in an apartment!

"That is so cool!" Rome exclaimed, "I mean, that's terrible, but wow, he faked being in the arctic?"

"Very well apparently, enough to fool some now very embarrassed private schools."

"Did you get to go into the apartment?"

"We did kiddo and it was unbelievable this guy made every character in every con-movie we've ever seen look like armatures."

"No way, not better than Catch Me If You Can and Oceans 11!"

"Yes my little minion, better"

"Wow," Rome breathed, unable to not be impressed, "so do you guys think that it was someone he conned who killed him?"

Castle reached over and ruffled Rome's hair

"We don't know yet Doc, but we're following the trail wherever it may lead."

"And what if it leads to Santa's village?"

"Better write up your list just in case."

"Got it, dad,"

When they walked into the loft Alexis was nowhere to be found, Gram however was at the counter; studying a thick packet, highlighting lines every once in a while, and drinking a glass of wine. She smiled when she saw her son and grandson and placed her glass on the table. Rome darted from his dad and into his grandmother's waiting arms as she leaned down from the stool to embrace him.

"There's my little Bruce Lee!" Martha exclaimed kissing the top of his head "Who?" Rome asked, "is he related to Jet Li?"

Gram sighed

"He was a martial arts movie star, long before your time kiddo, and no I don't think he is related to jet Li."

"Oh,

"Anyways my darling, how was class?"

"Good," Rome replied watching his dad wander slowly towards the stairs listening to something intently that Rome couldn't hear. "Sensei Kai was happy to see me, he said I did awesome for my first time back and he was glad I came back." Rome hung his head for a second "but he said I'm going to have to wait for my belt test,"

Martha smiled at Rome sympathetically and hugged his shoulders

"Oh sweetie you weren't expecting to get back to class and automatically have your belt test were you?" Rome shrugged "Sensei Kai is a very smart and capable teacher if he thinks you need to wait he knows what he is talking about. How long did he say?"

"Three weeks!" Rome said exasperatedly. Martha chuckled "Gram it's forever!"

"Three weeks may seem like forever, but maybe it will fly by, you'll just have to practice."

"Yeah I guess so," he said with a sigh "the other purple belts aren't taking the test right away either,"

"Oh? Why not?"

"Sensei Kai said none of them were ready either, so he's postp…porto…" Rome frowned and looked to his grandmother for help, he could sign the word with no problem, but no matter how he said it, it didn't sound right. He made the sign for the letter F with both hands and moved them up so they met like an arch to create the sign for postpone.

"Postponing?" Gram guessed recognizing the sign

"Yeah, that. Anyways he told all of us after class that he wants to wait until the twenty-second."

Gram smiled and hugged Rome again

"Well then, see, everything works out one way or another darling." Martha paused and looked over towards her son, who was slowly creeping along the railing of the staircase, even though he wasn't on the steps themselves.

Rome and Martha exchanged a confused look and Rome shrugged, not sure what his dad was doing. He moved away from gram and headed towards the fridge, pulling out a juice box and moving to where he could see his dad and his grandmother. Gram was remembering to sign, but Castle seemed fixated on whatever was going on upstairs, so he was forgetting to sign. Rome could now hear a humming noise but wasn't sure exactly what it was.

"I thought she said her lesson was tomorrow," Castle asked Martha chuckled and smiled knowingly at Rome who now understood the humming noise, his sister must be having her violin lesson upstairs.

"Oh, Dylan had a cancellation. Alexis begged him to let her take the slot." She replied, going back to her highlighting and wine drinking, but she paused after a few seconds when Castle stopped at the highest point he could reach at the stairs. "What are you doing?" Martha asked

"Nothing," Castle replied

"Dad, what's the matter?" Rome asked, climbing onto the stool next to Gram to watch the display.

"No hearing aids hm Rome?" Martha asked gently and Rome nodded "bad day today?"

"It was fine this morning, fizzed out after fifth period, hasn't really come back." he explained "is she up in her room playing?" Martha nodded "that's weird, I can't feel it, I usually can, I can hear a humming noise though, at least for now." he paused 'so what's up with dad?' Rome signed and Martha chuckled

"I have absolutely no idea kiddo," she replied

"Why'd it just get so quiet?" Castle asked turning around suddenly

"Maybe he's teaching her something," Martha explained

"Maybe he's filling her head full of lies." Castle replied and Martha looked at Rome again, neither one could figure out what was going on.

"What are you talking about?"

"Alright, that's it. I'm going up."

"Oh," Martha replied, she picked up her wine glass and her and Rome clinked the wine glass and the juice box together as they both laughed quietly.

Castle, however, was not laughing as he began mounting the stairs towards Alexis and Rome's bedrooms, he had only gotten maybe two steps from the first landing near his giant portrait of the subway, when Rome felt the vibrations of his sister's footsteps coming down the steps, followed closely by her new violin instructor Dylan.

Rome knew how excited his sister was to be taking lessons from him, apparently, he was a student at Julliard and everything, and in Rome's mind, he was 100 times less scary than Olga, Alexis' previous teacher.

Rome tried to stay away from her whenever Alexis had a lesson, the main reason was Olga did not like Alexis having an audience, even one who really couldn't hear what was going on. She would chase Rome away from Alexis' room or the living room

"So, when I start the piece, should it be up-bow?" Alexis was asking Dylan

"Uh, yeah, I would."

"Okay."

"Hey, you guys, I had no idea you were even here," Castle spoke up innocently, Martha and Rome exchanged another look and laughed to themselves again.

"Well, she's a very talented girl and a real hard worker," Dylan explained as the three of them walked down the stairs back to the main floor, Dylan was slowly inching towards the door.

Rome grinned a little, clearly, Dylan was a little intimidated by Castle and Rome always found that pretty funny, he had found it funny when Alexis was dating Owen and certainly found it funny now.

"Rome," Martha whispered signing as she went "be good,"

"I am Gram," Rome whispered back "but it is funny,"

"Yes it is, but behave,"

"So, um, practice tour Sautillé and we'll take another stab at Brahms next week," Dylan explained to Alexis, even sitting way over at the counter, Rome could see how much Alexis' violin teacher was desperate to get going.

"Okay, great," Alexis replied

"Alright." Dylan said carefully "uh have a good night."

"You, too," Castle replied knowingly as he basically herded Dylan towards the door.

"Night, Dylan," Martha called

"Bye."

"You be safe," Castle added as Dylan shut the door behind him, once he was gone, Castle and Alexis joined Martha and Rome in the kitchen. Rome, Alexis, and Martha looked at Castle expectantly "I don't trust him," he said

"What?" Alexis exclaimed in shock "Why?"

Castle sighed

"What do we really know about this guy?" he asked Rome and Martha exchanged a look and their heads went back and forth between Castle and Alexis at the two's exchange.

"I know that he's an amazing violinist and a really great teacher." Alexis countered

"Olga was a great teacher." Was Castle's reply

"Olga kept a tissue up her sleeve, smelled like hard candy, and scared Rome."

"She only scared me away from wherever you were practicing, she acted like she owned the family room."

"Close enough," Alexis said to him, before looking back at Castle "What's this about, Dad?"

"I just don't think that you realize that what you see is not always what you get. I mean, how do you know that Dylan really goes to Juilliard? Did you call the school?"

"No..." Alexis replied exchanging a look with Rome, Rome shrugged, not sure where their dad was going with this either.

"Check his transcripts?" Castle continued

"No! But, Dad, I..."

"Okay, I don't think we should take any more lessons from this guy until he's been properly vetted. I want a credit check, school reports, maybe even a polygraph."

"Okay, you're officially out of control," Alexis exclaimed

"No! I'm not. Are you forgetting that Carlson guy?" Rome winced, he had a feeling either M's name, Mr. Carlson, or his kidnapping would be coming up in the conversation at some point and he was really hoping it wouldn't. Martha reached over and hugged his shoulders, tight, making sure he was okay as Castle continued his rant "The school thought he was legit and look what happened with that."

"Dad come on," Rome whispered

Castle looked at Martha, who sighed

"Back me up here." He practically begged

"You want her violin teacher to take a lie detector test? You're off the reservation, kiddo." Martha concluded, as she went to take another sip of wine, Castle reached over and took the glass out of her hand

"Okay, you know what? You're cut off." He said and Martha rolled her eyes

"Dad." Alexis' voice grew more insistent

"No. You know what? I am the grown-up here." Castle reminded them, and Rome tried not to laugh at that one, apparently, his grandmother thought the same thing because she said

"Oh, this is scary."

"And I say no more lessons from this guy until we've got him checked out." Castle finished and then stopped when he saw the hurt look on Alexis' face. "What?"

Alexis looked like she was fighting between crying and being mad, she looked at Rome for help, but he couldn't help, he agreed with her, but he also saw his dad's point and didn't want to take sides and upset either one, so he shrugged.

"I finally find a teacher that I connect with. Who's as excited about music as I am. Why are you trying to ruin it?" Alexis finally said

"I'm not. I'm just..." Castle managed to say, but he didn't get very far as Alexis stormed off. "Hey!" he turned to Martha and Rome "What's going on with her?"

"Besides your unreasonableness? Hormones. What's your excuse?" Martha explained, Castle looked at Rome

"Doc, I'm sorry for-" he started to say and Rome shook his head

"Don't worry about it dad, I'm good," he took a deep breath and slid off his chair "I've got to finish my homework though,"

"Wait kiddo what about dinner?"

"I'm okay, I'm not that hungry," he replied picking up his duffle bag and heading upstairs.

He opened his bedroom door and tossed his bag in, before turning down the hall and heading for his sister's room. He knocked on the door and waited for his sister to answer

"Lex, it's me," he called and seconds later she opened the door, her eyes were red and she had definitely been crying. 'Are you okay?' he signed and that got a small smile out of his sister.

"Do you think dad's being unreasonable or do you think I'm overreacting?" Rome sighed and followed his sister into her room, he climbed up on the bed and sat Indian style, "hey off my bed with those sneakers!" Alexis exclaimed, Rome grinned and kicked off his sneakers to the floor.

"That better?"

"No, but I'll deal with it," she replied, she sat down on the bed in front of her brother so their knees were touching "so, back to my question?"

"Do you promise not to get mad at me?" Rome asked carefully and Alexis narrowed her eyes at him for a second

"Rome," she started to say

"Hear me out Lex, please?" Alexis took a deep breath and nodded "I can understand why dad is getting wigged out, he's right, it's hard to really trust anyone new anymore." He paused "we had a substitute teacher today in social studies. She was really nice and even took a break from the actual lesson to show us some of her souvenirs from China, she climbed the Great Wall and got a medallion for doing it."

"That's really cool Rome but I-"

"I almost had a panic attack walking into class when I saw her. It was someone new, someone I had never seen before and I had a sudden flashback to Mr. Carlson." He paused "but I knew that was different and I was able to calm myself down and go into class. But my point is dad's just being dad. He's trying to keep us safe, how he knows how. Give him a couple of days to chill."

Alexis leaned over and hugged Rome tight

"Do you think I overreacted?"

Rome shook his head

"Definitely not, I think you were both justified." Alexis grinned "what? What's so funny"

"I really think I've become an influence on you lately. You're becoming so diplomatic and growing up"

"Naw, it's all in your imagination." Rome slid off his sister's bed and gave her a shrug "dad'll come around, you'll see."

"Where are you going?" Alexis asked suspiciously

"I've got homework to finish," Rome explained "unlike someone in this place, I actually do my homework," he added with a grin and Alexis chucked one of her pillows at him.

"Rome?" Alexis asked as he moved towards the door

"Yeah?"

"You sure about dad?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure, by this time tomorrow he'll have calmed down and realized that he's overreacting over Dylan." Rome reassured his sister


	16. Chapter 16

Rome turned on bedroom light and tossed his duffle bag to the floor. He yawned as he dug into his duffle bag to hang his belt up, he was exhausted and that was part of the reason he had told his dad he wasn't hungry, the other reason was he really wasn't hungry, he had grabbed a hotdog on the way to karate and lunch at school had been breakfast, which he absolutely loved, so he went up for seconds and even managed to weasel extra from Gage who couldn't finish his.

But Thursdays were usually a busy day for Rome regardless. He got out of school around 2:30, was picked up by the van from Lexington School for the Deaf, had after school activities, and some classes there, after which his dad or Gram would pick him up and he'd go to karate from 6:30 to 7:30.

Thursdays were the only day that his schedule was that crazy, he had karate twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but only went to Lexington on Wednesdays and Thursday. When he was younger Rome had been going to Lexington Monday through Friday after school, but now he was going because he wanted to not because he had to.

But now, Rome had some homework to get done before he called it a night, not too much, he'd gotten most of it done during homeroom and some of the math problems at Lexington between his friends dragging him out on the court to play some quick games of basketball.

To save time, Rome changed into his PJs and got comfy as he settled at his desk to finish the last two math problems and answer the five science questions about the density, in preparation for the lab the following day. Rome was actually excited for science because they were going to measure the density of certain objects using water in the beakers. Kevin's class was a day ahead of Rome's because of a school assembly that occurred when Rome's class was supposed to have science so Kevin had given his friends the inside scoop about what Mr. Tucker had planned for them, apparently even with the smocks on, they all got soaked, with Mr. Tucker leading the water fight.

Rome had just finished the last question when he felt movement coming towards his door, his door was shaking a little and he could see a shadow underneath as if something was hitting his door, backing up, and hitting the door again. He slid out of his desk chair and quietly crept towards the door, pressing his ear against the wood, straining to listen for a noise that was as faint as it could possibly be. Whatever it was backed up and hit his door again, hard.

He slowly opened his door and in drove one of his dad's remote-controlled cars going at such a high rate of speed, Rome had to jump out of the way so it wouldn't run his feet over. When it hit his desk it backed up and did a perfect three-point turn, it was then Rome realized it not only had a video camera attached but also had a note. He crawled over on his hands and knees to the car and grinned a little as it revved it's tiny motor a few times, he could feel it through the floor and tried not to jump when the car inched towards him for a second. He pulled the note off and read it,

'I know you said you weren't hungry Doc, but there's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for you downstairs on the counter with a big glass of dark chocolate milk, I am also there if you need any help on your homework, love dad,'

Rome grinned and wrote on the note

'Thanks, dad, be right down,' then he reattached the note to the car and carried it to the doorway, allowing it to zoom down the hall past his sister's closed door and towards the stairs. He gathered up what was left of his math homework, there was only one problem left and he knew he could at least get his dad to check it, then Rome followed the remote-controlled car towards the stairs.

Castle was famous for his toys, at least famous among family and friends, so he prided himself in having pretty powerful remote-controlled toys, so Rome wasn't surprised to see that the toy car had gotten up the stairs via a ramp Castle had set up after the first landing, where he was standing, remote in hand and a sheepish grin on his face.

"Hey Doc, got my note?"

Rome returned the grin and laughed

"It was hard to ignore," he replied bounding down the stairs.

"I figured you might be a little hungry, even after all you've probably had today."

Rome nodded

"I didn't think I was, but working on my homework made me hungry for some reason."

"Speaking of which how's the homework coming along? I know you said this morning that math looked a little daunting today." Castle asked and Rome gave him the sign for okay.

"The math was tricky, could you still take a look at it and make sure I'm doing it right."

Castle nodded and Rome followed him to the kitchen, handing him the book and his notebook as he climbed onto the stool. As promised, waiting for him was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Rome didn't wait as he picked up the sandwich and took a huge bite, Castle came over and spread the notebook and math book on the countertop, reading over what Rome had already done.

"Did you let Mrs. Lu know you were having trouble?"

"We had a sub today," Rome explained "and yesterday and apparently for the next few days, she's been out sick and has um" he paused, he could picture the word in his mind, but saying it in his mind it sounded he was mispronouncing it.

"Flu?" Castle guessed and Rome shook his head

"No it starts with a P…I think."

"Plague?" again Rome shook his head "Post first day of school fever?"

Laughing Rome shook his head

"Definitely not, I think it's um," he paused and quickly fingerspelled pneumonia. Castle nodded understanding

"Oh, that's not fun," he said and Rome nodded "and she may be out for a while kiddo,"

"We signed a get well-card for her today, Mrs. Porter, the other math teacher brought it in for us."

"Did you ask her to explain it?" Rome shook his head "how come kiddo?"

"It felt weird asking for help with math, I'm used to understanding this stuff and helping my friends out, I'm not used to being the one who needs help on it."

Castle sighed

"It's okay to ask for help Doc, there's nothing wrong it, I keep telling you that. Did you eventually find someone to help?"

"Mrs. Holloway at Lexington went over it with me, it makes a little more sense now because she was really good at explaining it. The sub for Mrs. Lu was going too fast for me to keep up, even with Gage signing I couldn't understand her,"

"Where was Mrs. Blackstone?"

"Some conference today,"

"And they didn't bring in a sub for her?" Castle asked, a little annoyed by that when Rome shook his head, not annoyed at his son of course, but at the school. Rome was usually so easy going and laidback that it didn't seem to bother him that he had been without a translator all day when he clearly needed one,

"Don't worry about it, dad,"

"Kiddo I do worry about it, we all agreed on a translator to help you, the school should have at least had a substitute, I'm surprised and I'm surprised Mrs. Blackstone didn't call for one."

Rome took another bite of his sandwich and shrugged

"Math was the only time I really needed help, everything else I did okay keeping up with, we did a lot of reading from the book in ELA and social studies we watched a video, science we had an assembly so we missed that. Like I said it was a pretty easy day aside from math."

Castle took a deep breath and gave Rome a half-smile, he still wasn't happy about what Rome was telling him and would definitely be calling the school, among other phone calls he had to make. But that was for tomorrow, for now, he had to turn his attention to the math problem that Rome had left unfinished, the one that seemed to be giving him the most trouble.

"How many problems were you supposed to do?"

"Ten," Rome replied, "and I got nine of them done at Lexington, with Mrs. Holloway's help, this is the last one and one I was trying to avoid."

"Let's see, solve for the given variable, 3x+2=20" Castle read then paused "what the heck?"

Rome chuckled

"That was my first reaction, my second reaction was who came up with this torture device, that guy from the Spanish inquisition?"

"Good one Doc," Castle replied "but I don't think math was part of the Spanish Inquisition,"

"It could've been," Rome shot back with a grin "would've been effective," he paused "so what's the verdict on the answer?" he asked "Well I, uh," Castle sighed "I surmise that the answer is 11"

Rome grinned and shook his head

"Given the way Mrs. Holloway explained it, I'm going to go with 11 is an impossible answer,"

"Fine how about 97,"

Now Rome started to laugh, he knew his dad wasn't being serious at this point

"Probably not," Rome replied

"82," Rome shook his head "99, 14, 2"

"Nope, negative, no, nein"

"The answer is nine?" Castle asked a running joke between father and son that had been going since Rome started learning German.

"No!" Rome was now flat out laughing he couldn't stop and nearly choked on his sandwich. He stared coughing anyways causing his dad to reach over and gently thump his back, "thanks,"

"You're welcome. What about 22?" Castle guessed and Rome shook his head again

"I don't think so,"

"Okay Mr. Smarty Pants, what's the answer then?"

Rome looked at the equation carefully, then at his dad, his dad wasn't being serious with the answers he was giving, but Rome could also tell that his dad knew the answer, he just wanted to make sure Rome could come up with it himself.

Rome sighed he was used to math being easy for him, he wasn't a fan of it, not like his sister who loved math and science, but despite not being a fan of it, he knew his facts and had never had a problem with it, but this algebra thing was beyond a foreign language to him, but still, he remembered what his teacher at Lexington had said and how she had explained it.

"Um, okay…so with this kind of problem you have to do it backward, instead of adding you have to subtract and instead of multiplying you have to divide to solve for X."

"Right, so how do we do that?" Castle asked gently, Rome took his pencil and a scrap piece of paper and wrote the equation down,

"so 20 minus 2, that's 18, then 18 divided by 3 and that's 6." Rome paused and looked at the equation he had just solved "it's six! The answer is six!" he exclaimed, "I get it!"

"There you go Doc, I knew you would, this stuff is going to seem tricky at first, but it'll get easier. It did for me, sort of,"

"You had to take this when you were a kid too?"

"At some point I did," Castle replied ruffling Rome's hair "anyways, you finish your sandwich, I'll check the rest of these things."

Of course, it only took Castle a few minutes to look over Rome's math homework, he had done most of the problems at Lexington and the few that he had solved on his own he had gotten right with no problem. Castle knew Rome's confidence with the new math was shakey, but clearly the kid knew the steps, it was impressive.

"Well?" Rome asked finishing up the sandwich, "how did I do?" at least that was what Castle assumed he had said, his mouth was full of peanut butter and jelly so it was hard to tell.

"Looks good kiddo, I think you definitely got it, but remember what I said, if you're having trouble ask for help, there's no shame in that got it?"

Rome nodded

"Got it,"

"Good, come on kiddo, hope on," Castle said moving in front of the stool so Rome could slide onto on his back "want a ride upstairs?" Rome nodded and reached for his plate, "don't worry about your plate I'll take care of it before I go to bed."

Rome nodded as they climbed the stairs when they hit the top Rome pulled on his dad's shirt collar like it was the reins for a horse's bridle

"Whoa there horsey!" He exclaimed and Castle obeyed stopping abruptly

"Dr. Watson, did you just tell me to whoa?"

Rome grinned and slid off his dad's back

"Yup, because Dr. Watson has to take a shower and brush his teeth first, and this was the perfect stop, saves me a trip." he explained with a mischievous grin that only a child of Richard Castle could perfect "unless Mr. Holmes plans on letting Dr. Watson skip both of those and play video games all night?"

"An excellent try my young one, but nope, shower, teeth brushed, bed. I've got to be a stickler tonight. Though I would like to know why Dr. Watson is speaking in the third person?"

Rome shrugged

"It's fun," he said, "anyways, we could always skip the last one, it's not that important right?" Rome pointed out with a grin.

Castle thought that over for a second, then he reached over and tickled Rome's ribs, slowly at first, then he began tickling Rome to the point that Rome was near tears he was laughing so hard.

"Do you submit Doctor?" Castle exclaimed

"Never!" Rome called, then both him and Castle stopped laughing looking sheepishly towards Alexis' door wondering if she heard their loud joking and if they'd both be in trouble. They watched her door for any sign of movement, but none came, the light stayed off under the doorway and Rome didn't feel any vibration. "I think we're safe," he whispered, both pretending to wipe the sweat off their foreheads, which set the pair of them off again laughing.

"What about one quick game of zombie killing before I tuck you in?" Castle asked. Now Rome stopped laughing and looked at his dad carefully, looking for any hints of joking, his dad was dead serious.

"But dad, it's-"

Castle put a hand over Rome's mouth gently and grinned

"Doc," he lowered his voice, "shhh," slowly Castle pulled his hand away before he started to sign 'do you want us to get in trouble with your sister?' Rome shook his head, 'then we have to be very, very, very quiet, and we're only doing one level, to the first safe house got it?' Now Rome nodded and grinned 'okay kiddo, go take your shower and brush your teeth, come get me when you're ready and we'll play down in my office okay', Rome didn't need to be told twice as he scampered off towards the bathroom him and his sister shared.

x-x-x-x

"Wow, someone had a late night last night huh?" Todd asked with a grin as Rome deposited his books into his locker, letting out a huge yawn in the process. There was only about ten minutes left before the first bell was going to ring, plenty of time to socialize before beginning the school day, a Friday of course which was even better, that was if Rome could actually keep his eyes open.

"What?" Rome asked yawning again

"What were you doing all night?" Todd asked grinning

"Dad helped me with my homework and then to recover from math overload we played Left4Dead, he got a little carried away."

"How do you get carried away with a video game? Especially that video game?" Gage asked coming up behind his friends

"Remember, my dad has made it a personal mission to tick off the witch as much as possible," Rome explained "she wasn't around in the first two levels so he didn't want to call it quits till he found her, anyways I gave up around 11 and he was still going strong multitasking both controllers, it was actually pretty comical. Though he found the witch just as I was leaving his office, walked right into her and...BAM! She attacked, pretty sure the computer players had walked away at the point and he got torn to shreds."

Gage shuddered, he wasn't a fan of the game to begin with and disliked certain zombies in the game even more, and more specifically he hated the witch. She freaked him out with her crying and wailing and he made it a point to avoid her as much as possible. He couldn't believe that Mr. Castle purposely went looking for her.

"Oh Gage don't be such a wimp," Joey spoke up bouncing his soccer ball off his knee "she's not that scary, if anything I think the Tank is the scarier zombie. Especially when that freaky music starts to play signaling he's coming close." Joey paused and grinned "hey seriously that's what we should do for Halloween, dress up as special infected from the game, there's five of us and five special infected, it's perfect," he grinned evilly as he looked at Gage "and I know who can be the Witch!" he added.

Gage looked at Todd and Rome desperately, they both shrugged, then Gage turned that look to Kevin when he joined them

"What?" he asked, "what I do?"

"Joey's trying to give me nightmares for the rest of my life," Gage explained with a sigh.

"Huh?" Kevin asked, confused

"Joey's discussing Halloween costumes, he wants to have a theme," Rome spoke up, he was going to leave it up to Joey to explain what the costumes he wanted to do were.

"Rome, is your dad having his Halloween party this year?" Todd spoke up, trying to change the subject somewhat. Rome nodded

"Of course he is, he has one every year. Why?"

"Just making sure, trick or treating then bam said the lady Halloween party at Castle Castle, can you ask him to make those eyeball things again? Those were awesome!"

Rome chuckled and rolled his eyes

"I'll mention it to him. Um speaking of my dad, do you guys want to sleep over Saturday?" he asked "dad said it be okay he even said he'll make spaghetti and meatballs,"

Todd made a disappointed face

"Shoot I can't," he grumbled, "I have to go to my cousin's Bar Mitzvah this weekend up in Connecticut, I'm going to be up there all weekend, we're helping my aunt set up the party and everything." Todd gagged a little "really don't want to go," he added

"Why?" Rome asked as they headed down the hall for homeroom "your brother's Bar Mis...mits..." Rome frowned as he struggled with the word, so instead, he fingerspelled it and Todd nodded

"Mitzvah?" he guessed and Rome nodded back

"Yeah, that, your brother's was fun when we went, I mean, I remember the party was fun and the ceremony part was interesting but it wasn't super boring,"

"Yeah, but that was because we were all together and made it fun, my cousin is..." Todd paused trying to figure out the word "my grandmother calls him a shtoonk," he added with a grin and the other four boys exchanged a look

"A what?" Kevin asked

"A shtoonk, it's Yiddish," Todd explained "my mom's mom lives in Connecticut with my cousin's family, she speaks English, especially when she's watching the Price is Right, but she's more comfortable speaking Yiddish. A shtoonk basically means a party pooper or a killjoy," he paused "Nick isn't much fun to be round even when we were little and now that he's finally turning thirteen and having his Bar Mitzvah, it's going to be even worse."

"Is he the one with glasses he always wears on the tip of his nose?" Rome asked

Todd nodded

"Yeah that's Nick, everyone in my family says he doesn't need a Bar Mitzvah because he already acts like a grown-up, only not the fun kind"

"Shtoonk," Kevin repeated with a grin "I like that word, I may use that against my sister, 'cause she's definitely one."

"I can't use it on my sister," Rome spoke up "she'd probably know what it means and I'd never hear the end of it, and she's already on a warpath with our dad over her violin teacher." he paused "maybe the weekend after then?"

The other four looked at each other and nodded

"Works for me," Gage said

"Me too," Todd added

"I have to double-check with my grandmother," Kevin replied "but it should be okay,"

"Same with me," Joey finished

"Excellent!" Rome exclaimed as they headed into homeroom.

The day went by pretty smooth, by lunchtime, Kevin had been told about Joey's Halloween plan and was, to everyone's surprise, he was against it, somewhat. Kevin and Joey tended to think alike so they usually went along with whatever scheme the other was plotting.

The discussion had to be put on hold after lunch, but when the final bell rang that afternoon and the announcements had come and gone and their grade had been dismissed, the discussion resumed.

"Oh come on, why are you guys against it?" Joey asked pulling his backpack out of his locker and joining the others. "it would be awesome, hey maybe we can even convince Rome's dad to have a costume contest, we'd win with no sweat."

"It's not that we're against it," Kevin started to say

"Speak for yourself!" Gage argued as they headed towards the exit, joining the throngs of elementary school kids.

"Okay, I'll rephrase," Kevin replied, "it's not that we're all against it, it's just one of us is going to be a girl if you think about it and I don't think it's fair to automatically make it Gage and at the same time I don't want to be the witch either."

"Me either," Todd added

"Rome?" Joey asked, his eyes pleading with Rome for at least him to be on his side, but Rome winced and shook his head.

"Sorry Joe, going with the majority here," Rome replied "I don't want to be the witch either." he paused "but..." he said thoughtfully "I do have an ut...alt..." he frowned and gave the sign for alternative, taking his pointer and middle finger on his left hand, he held them up and with the same fingers on his right hand he tapped them twice

"Alternative?" Gage guessed recognizing the sign

"Yeah, that," Rome replied "anyways, what if instead of all five of us being special infected, what if three of us went as Bill, Francis, and Louis, and the other two go as zombies, either common infected or special and it's their choice. Or whoever wants to go as a normal can and whoever wants to go as a zombie can, 'stead of all five of us being zombies if we don't want to."

The others exchange a look and nodded in agreement

"I can get behind that," Gage agreed

"It is a fun idea Joey, just needs some tweaking," Rome added, Todd was about to reply when they saw a flash of red hair barreling at them, Rome had his back to the barreling redhead and wasn't sure why his friend's eyes were suddenly getting wider.

"Uh, Rome, your sister's coming, incoming at twelve o'clock, impact in three, two, one," Todd muttered signing as he went, just as Alexis came up to the group. "Hi Alexis!" Todd exclaimed and the others gave their hellos as well

"Hi guys," Alexis huffed "Rome I hate to pull you away, but we've got to get going,"

"Is everything okay?" He asked exchanging a confused look with his friends who all shrugged.

"Depends on your definition of okay," Alexis grumbled nodding for him to follow her

"Right, uh I'll talk to you guys later," Rome added waving at his friends, before flowing his sister outside. Once they were on the sidewalk she began walking in the opposite direction of home, she was walking towards the subway. "Uh, Lex, what's going on?"

"Do you have your metro card?"

Rome reached into his backpack and checked the pocket where he kept his student ID and his metro card, he grinned victoriously and held it up

"Yup!" he exclaimed "why? Where are we going?"

"I need to talk to dad right now, it can't wait till he gets home," Alexis explained, she quickened her pace and Rome had to jog to keep up with his sister

"Um, Lex, don't get mad at me for this, but they invented these wonderful devices called phones where you can basically call someone anytime you need to." Rome instantly regretted saying this because of the look his sister gave him. "Right, um, never mind," Alexis seemed satisfied by that version of an apology as she picked up the pace. "Lex, come on wait up!" Rome called as they hit the subway entrance and made their way down the steps.

"Hurry up," she grumbled.

Rome knew that Alexis wouldn't purposely leave him behind, but he was having trouble keeping up with his sister, she was being a literal speed demon as she swiped her card, thankfully she waited for him as he swiped his and caught up with her.

It wasn't until they were heading for the train that would take them uptown did he realize where they were going. They were going to the 12th, that's what Alexis meant when she said she had to talk to their dad at that moment. As they stood on the platform waiting for the train Rome caught his breath and looked at his sister expectantly, hoping she'd at least explain what was going on, when she didn't say anything, Rome sighed realizing he had to get the conversation rolling.

"So…so what's the matter?" he asked carefully deciding the joking route wasn't going to work, not after Alexis' reaction to his phone comment.

Alexis crossed her arms and blew up a strand of loss hair before looking down at her brother.

"I think Dad called Julliard," she explained Rome raised an eyebrow in confusion

"Why would he call Julliard?" Rome asked, then he looked at the annoyed look on Alexis' face, it wasn't an annoyed look at him, but it wasn't hard for Rome to figure out what had caused this whole mess "he called to check on Dylan didn't he?"

"Of course he did," Alexis replied "I should've known he would, but I was kind of hoping he wouldn't. Dylan called me and left me a voicemail letting me know that someone had called to check up on him. His instructor wasn't sure what it was all about and wanted to make sure that Dylan's students weren't having an issue with his lessons and Dylan thinks that he can recommend another teacher because things seem to be a little uncomfortable."

"Ouch," Rome winced "I'm sure dad didn't mean to get-" he started to say but stopped when Alexis' death glare returned

"Do not defend him on this one Rome,"

Rome sighed and complied, keeping his mouth shut, sure he felt bad for Dylan and certainly felt bad for Alexis knowing how much she had been enjoying her lessons with Dylan, but Rome saw their dad's point. Maybe it was because it had become harder for him to trust strangers after Mr. Carlson and M…so Rome wasn't all that surprised that their dad had called the school to check up on Dylan if anything he kind of agreed with it. But he was definitely not going to admit that to Alexis, he did not have a death wish.

The sibling's boarded the subway in silence, same with the walk to the precinct. Rome recognized the cop sitting at the desk though he wasn't sure about the officer's name, but he was pretty sure that everyone called him LT, clearly L.T. recognized him.

"Hey, you're Castle's kids," L.T. exclaimed "Rome and…" he paused and thought it over for a brief second "Alexis, how's it going guys, you looking for your dad?" Alexis nodded and L.T. nodded towards the elevator "He's upstairs, do you guys want me to call up and-" L.T. started to say but Alexis was already heading towards the elevator, dragging Rome behind her, Rome shrugged at the officer and gave him a goofy grin.

"Lex?" Rome whispered as the elevator dinged

"What?"

"Never mind," he muttered chickening out as the elevator doors opened, he could see his dad and Detective Beckett walking towards them and he winced, dad had no idea what was about to happen and Rome knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

Neither Castle nor Detective Beckett would see the kids until they rounded the corner, Alexis marched ahead of Rome as he tried to keep up with his sister, hoping to at least defuse some of the situation. Castle and Beckett stopped short when they saw Alexis, as she reached Castle she grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him towards the integration room.

"Dad!" she growled "we need to talk, now!" she turned to Rome "Rome stay here,"

Rome didn't like that idea at all,

"But Lex, come-" he started to argue, but she glared at him and shook her head

"No buts, sit, stay!" and she slammed the door to the integration room behind her.

Rome groaned and turned to face a dumbfounded Beckett, who wasn't entirely sure what she had just witnessed.

"Hi Rome," she finally said "interesting day?"

"You don't know the half of it,"

"Do you know what that's all about?"

"Yep," Rome replied with a sigh "unfortunately, and dad's about to find out the hard way." he paused "I know it's impolite to eavesdrop," he started to say, but would it be okay if we listened in? I'm going to have to deal with the backlash of this from both sides and I'd like to have a head-start so I can figure out how best to defuse, I don't want to walk home with a very angry sister and not have some kind of information style ammunition in my backpack."

Beckett sighed and nodded, she put an arm around Rome's shoulder and guided him into the observation room attached to the interrogation room Alexis had dragged Castle into.

"So what is this about?"

"Alexis thinks dad's being overprotective and she's mad that he's checking up on her teachers because he doesn't trust them." Rome paused again and sighed "I'm pretty sure it's my fault,"

"Rome," Beckett commanded, "this is in no way your fault, it's a parent's job to be overprotective with their kids no matter what the situation, your dad is just doing what he thinks is best."

"Dad's always been protective of us, but I don't think he would've gone this far until recently." Rome gave a sarcastic laugh "I thought my trust instinct was out of whack, dad's is way out of orbit."

"I'm sure it's nothing," Beckett replied

"Oh just wait and see," Rome answered, knowingly as they turned their attention to the interrogation that was occurring on the other side of the two way glass.

Castle was sitting across from them, Alexis was leaning on the table, her back to the mirror, but Rome could only imagine that Alexis was seething, while Caste just looked confused.

Rome winced because not only did his dad look confused (while at the same time, he probably knew what was coming) but seeing his dad sitting there made him look like he was in trouble with the police, this wasn't like a normal family discussion, being in a police interrogation room just made it too realistic for Rome's liking.

Beckett glanced over at him and flipped the switch to allow them to listen in, she like Rome felt a little uncomfortable with this situation but for an entirely different reason, this was a family thing and she felt guilty spying on them.

"Dylan called. Did you call Juilliard and check on him?" Alexis asked, Rome was pretty glad his hearing was doing okay for the day, he hated to ask Detective Beckett to translate for him, especially since she seemed uncomfortable watching the scene in the first place.

Castle cringed

"Maybe," he replied

"I can't believe you." Alexis exclaimed "After I told you how much taking lessons from him means to me. You know Rome told me that I shouldn't worry, that you wouldn't do anything drastic or insane, but clearly I shouldn't have listened and trusted my gut."

"Oh come on Lex, why are you bringing me into this," Rome grumbled and Beckett looked at him confused, "I told Lex that dad was just being protective of us and that he'd calm down, he just needed a few days to kind of chill. I didn't think either one of them were overreacting, I was trying to be diplomatic, clearly, I'm getting dragged in and I've got to find a way to go back to neutrality land,"

Beckett chuckled

"Good luck with that Rome."

Meanwhile, the conversation was still going on in the room, Alexis was now pacing back and forth between the table and the window.

Clearly Castle was trying to get a word in, but Alexis cut him off

"No, no, I'm speaking. Am I a trouble-maker, Dad? Do I get drunk, disobey authority, steal police horses..."

Castle raised a hand to interrupt

"That-" he started to say but she cut him off again, quickly

"...naked?" she asked and Rome winced,

Beckett sighed, remembering when she had read that in the file. It was after she had brought Castle in the first time, to ask him a few questions regarding the Allison Tisdale murder, he had been more of a jackass then and seemed a little proud of his accomplishments.

Beckett wasn't sure if that had just been Castle being Castle, or if it was all an act, it was hard to admit, but he seemed more mature than that man she had met nearly a year before. She glanced over at Rome and sighed again, she knew if there was any maturing from Castle it had definitely come with a phone call right before Labor Day weekend.

Rome felt the detective looking at him and automatically assumed it was the horse story that caught her attention, which Beckett was thankful for, she knew Rome was still having trouble with his self-imposed blame regarding his kidnapping, he definitely didn't need to know she thought his father at least in her mind had changed because of it.

"Alexis laid into him for a week when that happened, my greatest concern was that he didn't bring the horse home with him, I was little at the time, I thought it be cool to have a real police horse living in the loft with us."

"Uh," Castle started to say, but Alexis kept going

"No. That'd be you. I seem to be the only person in this family blessed with good judgment, even Rome is following in your footsteps, so good judgment is out on him," again Rome made a face and Beckett reached over to pat his shoulder "so it's just me, yet, you don't trust me."

"I trust you." Castle explained, finally able to get a word in, "It's just, it's a dangerous world out there and people lie, look at what happened with your brother, we learned that the world isn't safe, we have to be cautious."

Now Rome looked at Beckett again as if to say 'I told you so,' but he didn't, even though his face said it for him. Instead, he leaned on the window sill and gave an exasperated sigh

"Just wait, I can promise that my name will come back up in the conversation shortly."

"You don't think I know that? I'm in high school. It's like the Wild, Wild West with hormones. And I think I'm doing a pretty good job navigating it and as far as what happened to Rome it doesn't mean that we have to live in a bubble, sure it made us all more cautious, but you can't keep using as an excuse. We're both handling things really well, we're both responsible."

"Well, I was right about my name coming back up, but I'm surprised after the lack of good judgment comment I'm considered responsible," Rome said, giving Beckett a Castle type grin. Beckett chuckled a little, "I think I may go wait out in the hall, I have a feeling Alexis may be even madder if I'm not where she left me."

Beckett nodded and walked him out of the observation room, they walked over to her desk and he gave a sigh.

"Rome, your dad would be protective of you and your sister no matter what has happened in the past. It's all part of being a parent. It is rare that I see a mature side to your dad, but you know when I see it the most?"

Rome gave a shrug

"When there's a dead body?"

"Uh, definitely no, it's whenever it involves you and your sister." Beckett paused "and I do see your dad's point and I bet you see it more than you're really admitting too because you're afraid to make your sister mad. It's hard to really trust new people when you go through something traumatic and what you and your family went through was traumatic Rome. If I was in your dad's shoes I would feel the same exact way, in fact, there are times where I do. And I don't want you to feel guilty, because none of it was your fault okay?"

Rome took a deep breath and nodded

"I know, it just it feels like it is. Maybe it's like trusting people again, maybe it just takes time for it to go away right?" Beckett nodded, she hesitated for a second, but slowly reached over and hugged Rome's shoulders, and to her surprise, he returned the hug "thanks Detective Beckett,"

"You're very welcome Rome, I've said it before and I'll always say it, if you ever need to talk, you know where to find me okay?"

Rome nodded and gave her a grin, just as Alexis flew out of the interrogation room coming straight for them.

"Come on Rome, let's go home," she said, her face bright red "thank you for watching him Detective" she called grabbing Rome's arm and dragging him out of the precinct, as they headed towards the elevator, Rome once again found himself shrugging his answer at the audience behind him.

"Can I at least say hi to dad," he asked as they stepped onto the elevator

"Only if you want to stay behind because I'm not waiting,"

Rome grumbled, as much as he'd rather stay behind at the precinct then accompany his grumpy sister home, he didn't want his sister walking home alone.

"Fine," he muttered.

Alexis slowed her pace on the way home, which Rome was glad about, he wasn't in the mood to chase after his sister.

When they neared the subway, she actually looked over at him and gave him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry I snapped at you," she said carefully, he shrugged

"I'm not the one you should apologize to," he admitted, "you were kind of hard on dad weren't you?"

"You heard that?" she asked in surprise

"Through the two-way mirror, I didn't mean to spy Lex, but I wanted to know what was going on."

"Oh," Alexis said, she didn't seem mad, but for once in Rome's life she seemed lost for words

"I mean I've seen you be mad at him before and lecture him before, but this one was different this one was tough to watch." Rome explained "Do I think dad should've called the school to check up on Dylan?" he paused "yes I do, I agree with that part, but I think dad also should've told you first 'stead of doing it behind your back. You guys keep bringing up what happened to me and it keeps being used like a…like a crutch. Dad's using it to explain why he's so suspicious about your violin teacher and you're using it to explain why dad's being so overprotective and is driving you nuts, and you know what you guys are both right. And I'm guilty of it too, we're all using it. But that doesn't make it any easier. Yeah, dad needs to accept that you're in high school and are handling it pretty good, but you've got to accept that he's not going to stop protecting us or looking out for us as best as he thinks he can, just 'cause we're getting older."

Alexis nodded, she took a deep breath and hugged Rome's shoulders tight

"You make a pretty good point," she admitted and he shrugged

"Just saying what I think, doesn't mean I'm right," he paused and looked down the street "want a hot chocolate?" he asked "my treat?"

x-x-x-x-x

Later that afternoon, Alexis had just finished helping with his math homework when the lights in the loft flashed, letting them know that someone was at the door before either of them could answer it, Martha hurried to let (much to Rome and Alexis' surprise) Dylan in.

"I thought your lesson was tomorrow?" Rome asked and Alexis gave him a slight shrug

"It was, at least I thought it was,"

"Oh he's not here for you darling," Martha called "I have decided that it is high time I expanded my musical endeavors and thought Dylan is such a wonderful and patient teacher he would be the perfect choice and why not go for the beautiful and haunting violin."

Rome bit back a laugh as he exchanged a look with his sister who rolled her eyes and sighed, she pulled out a book and settled back in the couch. Rome winced as Gram's lesson began, a highly annoying screeching noise filled the loft and it sent chills up and down Rome's back.

Taking a deep breath, Rome picked up his DS and slid his hearing aids out, instantly the noise was minimized and he sighed with relief, he leaned against the couch and contently started playing.

The lesson hadn't been going very long when Castle came home, he timidly entered the loft and Rome looked up when he felt the vibrations on the floor, muffled by Gram's lesson. Castle joined the kids, sitting next to Alexis on the couch, he seemed very confused by the violin noise and the fact that it wasn't Alexis playing it.

"Wait, who's getting a lesson?" he asked Rome scooted around so he could see his sister and father.

"Gram," Alexis explained, barely looking up from her book.

"It was painful" Rome added gesturing to his hearing aids and Castle chuckled a little, glancing over his shoulder at Martha. Rome leaned up a little to look where his dad was looking as Dylan showed Martha how to hold the bow.

Castle hesitated for a second before taking a deep breath and smiling a very apologetic smile at Alexis.

"I'm sorry for how I acted. There's no one in the world I trust more than I trust you guys. And I'm gonna try to be more respectful. Just promise me one thing? Be patient with me. I've never had a teenage daughter before."

Alexis and Rome exchanged a look and he grinned at her.

"Deal," Alexis replied nodding

Castle sighed with relief and hugged Alexis tight,

"Thanks." He said, he paused and reached down to the floor where Rome still sat and carefully pulled Rome up onto the couch plunking him next to his sister. "And Doc?" he said carefully "being that I was a teenage boy once, please only be a little like me, follow in your sister's footsteps okay on the judgment thing?"

Rome pretended to think this over before he grinned and nodded

"I'll try,"

"Thanks, Doc," Castle replied and hugged him,

"Don't listen to him dad," Alexis spoke up smiling "he's already on his way, you should've heard him today, I think Rome might surprise all of us and be the mature one of the family,"

Rome looked at his sister, horrified

"I will not!" he exclaimed laughing,

"Aren't you worried about Dylan's intentions towards Gram?" Alexis asked, ignoring her brother's comment.

"I'm hoping they involve running away together, but I'm not that lucky." Castle explained and all three cringed. "Speaking of running away, how about we have dinner out?"

"Yes. Please." Alexis exclaimed

"Thank you." Castle said pulling her to her feet, as Rome jumped on his back

"CHOW! FOOD!"

"Right, quick!" Alexis said with a grin as they headed out of the loft

"And on the way, you get to tell us about the Polar explorer!" Rome exclaimed

"Polar Explorer?" Alexis repeated, she hadn't really been paying attention to the case that her dad had been working on with Detective Beckett "does the NYPD even have jurisdiction in the North Pole?" she asked and all three burst out laughing


	17. Chapter 17

"You know what I don't get?" Todd spoke up as he repeatedly mashed the buttons on his controller.

"Why we're playing this game on expert?" Kevin replied, his character on screen ducking as a zombie tried to tackle him "and whose bright idea this was?"

The group laughed a little.

"Well, there's that of course," Todd said thinking that over "but my other question is how come none of these guys have become zombies?"

It was a week or so after the group had originally hoped to have a sleepover and they were all huddled in Rome's room playing Left4Dead on Rome's Xbox. They were only on the second level of the game and hadn't even made it to the next safe-house before Todd asked his question. The pizza had been eaten and the game of laser tag had been a success, especially with Rome's dad participating and basically kicking all their butts.

"Wait…what?" Joey asked, barely taking his eyes off the screen, he was in full concentration mode with the game even though Rome was pretty sure he was looking for a way to get his character killed. He had drawn the short end of the pencil when the group drew lots for who would get first pick of characters.

Todd, who had picked the only unsharpened pencil went first selecting Francis a tough-talking biker like ex-con, Rome had picked Bill a Vietnam vet character while Kevin had picked Louis, a guy who looked like he belonged behind a desk in an office building, which left Joey who had no choice but to take Zoe, the only girl of the group. Joey had grumbled about it at first, but had accepted that it was only fair, he'd literally drawn the short pencil of the lot.

Gage who was not as big a fan of the game as his friends was given the standby option and would take over for the first player to die, but he was really hoping that all his friends' characters would suddenly develop immortality so he wouldn't have to play at least not at that point. Gage had a good reason for not wanting to play at that moment, all the controllers started to vibrate and the music changed moods, signaling that a tank the biggest, meanest, and most difficult zombie to bring down was approaching the group.

"Seriously, how have these guys not become zombies?!" Todd exclaimed "look at how much damage these guys take just going from one safe house to another. How is they're not mindless, snarling, drooling, flesh-eaters by now?" his character on screen threw a Molotov cocktail at the oncoming tank.

"Great," Rome grumbled "nice Todd, now it's a moving wall of fire!"

Todd shrugged and grinned

"I panicked," he explained "anyways, someone want to answer my question, anyone, hello?"

"It's a video game," Gage pointed out around his mouthful of popcorn "it's not supposed to make sense."

Kevin put his controller down as his health finally ran out, done in by the tank.

"Crap," he grumbled before looking at Todd "this may be fiction, but what if it wasn't?" he added mysteriously "what if this WAS real,"

"What a real zombie apoco…apaca…" Rome tried to say but couldn't get the word to sound right, he kept getting tongue-tied.

"Apocalypse?" Gage guessed and Rome nodded

"Yeah, think about it, what would you do to survive?" Rome asked seriously as he tried to concentrate on shooting the tank, which wasn't working because his health was dropping quickly thanks to the hordes that were surrounding him, Joey's was too, only Todd had a good amount of health left, but the tank was heading right for him and it was still on fire.

"Rome, help, help," He squeaked but before Rome could help his friend, a black mass pounced on his character and began ripping him to shreds.

"Yeah sorry Todd, not going to happen, I've got a Hunter to deal with." It didn't take long for Rome's health to deteriorate until Todd was the only one of the survivors, but he had no chance of defeating the tank alone because the hunter pounced on him and began to shred Todd's character until the words 'the survivors have been overwhelmed' appeared on the screen.

All four groaned their disappointment waiting for the game to reload.

"Well if the zombie apocalypse happens, I know where I'm going," Kevin spoke up, he handed his controller to Gage as the level reloaded thrusting them back at the safe house.

"Where?" Rome asked, he didn't know if it was his dad's influence or what, but he loved anything to do with zombies and thought it would be cool to come up with a scenario on what him and his friends would do if the world was suddenly made up of mindless shuffling zombies.

"I'm going to the Meadowlands," Kevin exclaimed and the other four looked at each other in confusion

"You mean where the Jets play?" Rome asked, he wasn't that big of a football fan, at least not New York teams, it drove his dad nuts but he loved all of the New England teams and cheered for them before he would even think about cheering for the home team.

"Exactly where the Jets play, and where the Giants are going to be playing!" Kevin cheered, he was a huge Giants fan, his bedroom was wall to wall with Giants memorabilia.

"Okay..." Gage started to say "I'll ask the question, why?"

"Think about it," Kevin replied "it's literally a fortress, you block off all the entrances and get someone to guard the very top and seriously on a clear day you can see for hundreds of miles, it'll be stocked up for food and medical supplies, all the clothes you could need in the pro shop, weapons,"

"I think you're going to need more than a football to take out a zombie," Rome replied he grinned at Todd who nodded, he picked up one of Rome's pillows and got into a football stance, Rome stood up and pretended to be a zombie, shuffling towards Todd groaning, "brains...must eat brains," he moaned the other three were laughing at this point, even Kevin who was very serious about his Meadowlands fortress idea

"Blue forty-two, blue forty-two...set...HIKE!" Todd exclaimed and chucked the pillow at Rome who pretended to get hit in the head with the pillow and fell to the floor with a thud.

"Brains down," he moaned

"Dude, that was pathetic," Todd pointed out walking over to his best friend and nudging him with his foot, Rome didn't respond.

Suspicious, Todd knelt down and poked Rome's shoulder, before he knew what was happening, Rome jumped up and pinned Todd growling

"Rule number one of zombie warfare!" Rome exclaimed, "never check to see if a zombie is dead or not!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Todd grumbled, he pushed Rome off of him and stood up. Then he looked over at Kevin who was looking at the pair of them expectantly "so you really think a zombie invasion breaks out your best bet is to go to a football stadium?"

"Okay Mr. Zombie master, where are you going?"

"First place I'm hitting is the nearest camping/hunting store." Todd explained, "then I'm hitting the nearest grocery store."

"You still need to find a safe place to," Kevin pointed out

"Yeah, preferable zombie-free." Joey added, he looked at Kevin and winced "and to be honest your idea is thought out Kev, but you're missing an important detail."

"What's that?"

"What if the stadium is full of zombies?" Joey explained and they all looked at him "in crisis people tend to flock to the most recognizable structures for not only comfort but for safety. That place may be chock full of people who are infected already and it's just going to become a storing place for them. But that's if you can get to the stadium. First, you have to get off of the island. The first thing people are going to want to do is get off of Manhattan which in itself is going to be tricky." Again blank stares "oh come on don't you guys remember that movie with Will Smith a few years ago, Rome seriously your dad let us watch it when we were like nine, ten years old, Rome you had just turned nine when it came out on DVD. None of you guys remember?"

Rome nodded, he remembered the movie, it had given Alexis nightmares for a week and even he had been creeped out by certain scenes, so much so that for about a month after seeing it at the movies with his dad he refused to go anywhere near the New York Public library.

"Oh I remember," Todd spoke up while Gage shuddered

"I think I blocked it from my memory," he added

"Anyways that's the first issue to deal with when the hordes start coming, getting out of here."

"Yeah he's right," Rome said carefully "very few people could leave Manhattan, and the army even blew up the bridges so people couldn't leave. They were trying to conba...cons.." Rome grumbled at looked at his friends, and gave the sign for contain, he held his left hand out flat with his palm towards his body waved his right hand over it once, like he was getting ready to perform a magic trick and then plunged his right hand into the cup his left hand made, trapping it there.

"Containing," Todd guessed and Rome nodded

"Yeah that, anyways that's what the soldiers in the movie were trying to do make sure it was just staying here in the city, granted who knows if it actually worked, I don't think it did, at least not completely but still that's what's going to happen." Rome paused "but if you can get out of the city and manage to make it to New Jersey you still have the other issue of what if the stadium is packed full of zombies."

The screen went dark as the game sat abandoned, the talk of a real-life situation involving zombies was much more important and for the moment, much more interesting.

"You know I don't see you guys coming up with a long term plan here," Kevin pointed out

"Hey," Todd spoke up, "I think my plan is pretty good,"

"Long term Todd it's gotta be long term, your plan is good but it's only a start."

"You are putting a lot of thought into this aren't you?" Gage replied "it's a little freaky Kev, I'm not going to lie,"

"My uncle is a survivalist," Kevin explained, "we don't really see him 'cause he lives completely off the grid, no phone, no internet, he doesn't even own a computer."

"Whoa," all four boys breathed

"Does he have an underground bunker?" Joey asked quickly and Kevin nodded

"Yeah, my grandfather built one during the Cold War. My uncle lives in the family house."

"Sweet! I would love to see that," Rome exclaimed and Kevin shook his head.

"I haven't seen Uncle Lance since I was six he's kind of the black sheep of the family because of this survivalist stuff. My parents think it's good to be prepared but Uncle Lance is an extremist,"

Rome was about to reply when he felt footsteps coming up the stairs he gestured for his friends to be quiet as the steps got closer and closer. The steps stopped outside Rome's closed door and whoever it was knocked three times, Rome's hearing was doing better than it had in weeks so he not only saw the movement of the door, but he also heard it. Slowly the doorknob began to turn and a shadow entered the room.

"I am here to inform the occupants of this establishment that there have been some noise complaints from a certain red-headed neighbor." Castle said poking his head into the room the boys all looked at him sheepishly.

"Sorry dad," Rome replied giving the sign for I'm sorry,

"Yeah we're sorry Mr. Castle," the other four boys replied in unison, but Rome looked at his dad suspiciously for a second

"Hey wait a second, isn't Alexis sleeping over Paige's tonight?" he asked and that was when Castle's serious face quickly broke into a goofy smile

"Shoot Doc, I thought I could fool you guys, but you're getting too good for me huh?" Rome returned the grin and nodded at his dad "anyways, you guys aren't being too loud I just thought you'd like to take a break from zombie killing and come downstairs for some ice cream, especially if you guys are all planning on at least setting up camp in my living room."

The boys all got a gleam in their eyes that could only be brought about by the prospect of sugar inducing bliss, Rome turned off his Xbox and the TV and chased after his friends who were already heading downstairs chasing his dad.

Castle had indeed created a smorgasbord of ice cream; four different flavors, an entire countertop full of toppings, and of course the knowledge that it was in fact all you could eat.

"I figured an ice cream buffet and a movie to watch before bed was a perfect idea," Castle explained as the boys dug in. "even though exactly how much sleep you guys will allow yourselves is debatable."

"What movie dad?" Rome asked taking the can of whipped cream and spraying the contents right into his mouth before loading his sundae up with the same topping.

"Well it being so close to Halloween I thought horror might be a good genre," Castle replied, he reached over and took the canister from Rome and finished off the can before reaching into the fridge to grab a fresh one. Handing it to Todd, Castle looked over at Gage "but we're talking classic horror here nothing that should be too nightmarish, I selected a decent variety." He finished reassuring Gage.

Rome wandered over to the collection of DVDs that Castle has laid out for them to pick from, he grinned at the titles sitting on top was one of his favorites 'Poltergeist,' Castle had also pulled out 'Rear Window, the original Amityville Horror, The Shining, Tremors, the new version of the Mummy and two of Rome's other personal favorites Ghostbusters one and two.

"Sheesh Mr. Castle," Todd breathed "this is not going to be a fun vote, you couldn't have narrowed it down anymore?"

"Sorry, Todd picked the best of the bunch and decided to let you boys decide."

"Can the Amityville Horror and the Shining be out please?" Joey asked, "I've seen them way too many times in the last few weeks."

Castle nodded and looked at the others

"Any objection?" He asked and the other four shook their heads "okay so Amityville and Shining are out," he paused moving them off to the side "any other throwouts?" He asked

"I don't know about everyone else," Rome spoke up "but I want at least a little scary so I think Tremors and the Mummy should go out too," as with Joey's suggestion there was no objection which left the two Ghostbusters movies, Rear Window, and Poltergeist.

"I know Rome likes Ghostbusters but we watch the first one we hafta watch the sequel no matter what so I say the vote goes between them and Poltergeist," Todd spoke up

"Yeah and Rear Window is suspenseful it's not really scary, Poltergeist on the other hand that movie is a great possibly nightmare-inducing movie!" Kevin added

"Or we could watch them all and just be picking the order we watch them in," Rome pointed out his smile growing mischievously.

Castle rolled his eyes and ruffled Rome's hair

"Okay, all those in favor of watching Poltergeist first hands?" Castle asked, Rome, Todd, and Kevin raised their hands, "Sorry you two, majority rules here," he said to Gage and Joey who nodded

"Can we at least watch the first Ghostbusters afterward?" Joey asked

Castle nodded

"If you guys are still awake when Poltergeist ends, I can put that on," the boys all laughed a little, Poltergeist wasn't that long of a movie and it was only 8:30, "you guys know the rules around here, lights are out at midnight no matter what." Castle looked at his watch "which gives you guys almost three and a half hours to watch as many movies as you'd like."

"Are you going to watch with us dad?" Rome asked adding some more rainbow sprinkles to his sundae.

"Tell you guys what, go grab your sleeping bags, blankets, pillows whatever and head to the family room. Doc grab some extra blankets out of the hall closet okay? I'll get things set up down here and watch a little bit with you guys, deal?" The boys nodded and scampered off to do what was asked of them, when they returned they all grinned at the setup.

Castle had taken a sheet and stretched it to make a screen against his the bookshelves and with a projector set up, attached to the DVD player, he had literally made a home theater for the boys in the living room.

They scrambled to get their makeshift beds set up in a good spot to see the movie, no one however objected to Rome being in the middle, giving him the perfect view of the screen and therefore the closed caption.

As the boys settled in with their bowls of ice cream, Castle looked them over to make sure everyone was set before he turned the movie on and switched off a few lights in the loft, then, carefully he stepped around the lumps that made up his son and friends making his way to the couch to watch behind them. As he stepped over Rome's pillow, Castle chuckled to himself noticing the distinct lump in the pillow, Balto joining the sleepover in his own style.

The movie kept the boys' attention and no one seemed to be falling asleep throughout Poltergeist. Once it was over, Castle switched out the disc for Ghostbusters as promised, but as that movie progressed Castle began to notice one by one they were nodding off. Kevin crashed before library ghost could attack Venkman, Ray, and Egon and by time the eggs start frying on Dana's countertop Todd and Joey had were out for the count. Gage crashed just as the containment unit was shut down and by the time the Stay-Puff Marshmellow man began walking through New York, Rome was gone.

Castle carefully slid off the couch and collected the empty ice cream bowls from the floor, he set the bowls down on a table and knelt down to take Rome's hearing aids out, he expected Rome to wake up, but he was still out…

"Night Romey," Castle whispered brushing Rome's hair back, Rome snuggled deeper into the blankets and Castle smiled as Rome reached into his pillowcase and gripped Balto's paw tight.

As Castle quietly rinsed out the bowls, he kept the lights off so not to wake up the five sleeping sixth-graders in his living room.

It being that dark in the loft reminded Castle of the famous New York City Blackout back in 2003 when Rome was four and Alexis nearly nine, that whole ordeal in itself had been an adventure, for everyone, especially for Rome and Alexis.

x-x-x-x

August 14th, 2003

"Doc can you put your Legos away and go wash your hands for dinner?" Castle asked taking his eye off the pot of spaghetti he was making for dinner.

"Aw but daddy, I'm building the ompire state-building" Rome replied giving his dad the best sad puppy dog eyes he could muster. "And then if it's not finished Darth Vader can't get to go to work,"

Castle was taken aback for just a second, Rome's creativity never ceased to amaze him, and even though sometimes it was hard to understand Rome his comebacks were top notch especially given the fact he was only four and a half.

"Right, so let me get this straight you can't pick up your Legos because Darth Vader needs to get to work at the Empire State Building?" Rome nodded

"Uh-huh, he had to find a new place to work after Hans Solo and the Millennium Falcon destroyed his last workplace." Rome paused and eyed the pot of spaghetti "Can I set the counter for you daddy?" He asked innocently

"Okay I give, go ahead doc, you can set the table but after dinner, we're finding a different spot to build Darth Vader's office okay?"

"Okie dokie daddy!" Rome scrambled to his feet and ran for the kitchen.

With Castle's help for reaching the plates and cups Rome quickly set the table for dinner, once he had the silverware out as well he looked at his dad for approval. Castle looked over the table and grinned wide

"Awesome job Doc, looks perfect, now, why don't you run upstairs and wash up okay?" Rome nodded and ran for the stairs, but he stopped on the landing of the stairs and looked at his dad with a serious look on his face.

"Daddy?" he called "when's Lexis coming home?"

"Any minute now kiddo,"

"Gram too right daddy?" he asked "'cause I set the table for Gram too,"

Castle nodded

"Gram too,"

"Yay!" Rome exclaimed "'cause it's been ever, and ever, and ever since I saw Gram,"

Castle was about to reply to that when the lights of the loft flickered a few times before plunging the loft into partial darkness, bits of light could be seen near the windows from the late afternoon sun, but the position of the loft didn't allow for much of.

Rome let out a wail of panic and Castle stumbled through the kitchen towards the crying four-year-old.

"Hold on Doc, stay put I'm coming,"

"Daddy, please turn on the lights!" Rome cried "please, please, please, too dark, too dark!"

"I'm coming kiddo, it's okay," Castle was almost to the stairs when he felt and heard a crunch under his feet. He winced knowing that the crunch was at least one of Rome's Legos, something that he had stepped on in bare feet many times before so he was partially glad he was wearing shoes for this.

Thankfully though, Rome was too preoccupied to notice the crunch, if he heard it at all. The minute Castle reached the stairs he jumped into his dad's arms and snuggled close.

"Don't like the dark daddy," Rome whimpered

"I know kiddo, I know, are you okay?"

Rome sniffed and wiped his eyes on his sleeve, nodding slowly.

"A little daddy" he sniffed "can you turn the lights back on now please?"

"I would if I could Doc, I didn't turn them off,"

"Who turned them off?" Rome asked

"I think we blew a fuse Romey, so no one turned them off."

"Something blew up?" Rome repeated in surprise, even in the limited light, Castle could see he was wide-eyed.

"It's a figure of speech kiddo," Castle explained "it doesn't mean something actually blew up, it means the lights decided they wanted to take a break so they stopped working," he hoped that explained it enough as he shifted Rome and carried him to the window, careful to avoid the Lego battlefield.

"Sorry I didn't clean up dad," Rome said softly

"It's okay Doc, we'll do it later," Castle replied kissing the top of Rome's head as they looked out the window.

None of the neighboring buildings had any lights on, some of the cars below had turned on their headlights as they were heading towards the Holland Tunnel not far from the loft.

"Wow," Rome breathed "the whole city blew a fuse huh daddy?"

"Looks that way kiddo," Castle replied, now that the initial experience of the lights going out was over, Rome had calmed down pretty quick. Castle knew that might change dramatically when the sun did finally set and it was time for Rome to go to bed without the comfort of his nightlight, but for now, he was just fascinated by the lack of lights he was so accustomed to.

Castle, on the other hand, was growing more and more concerned and knew he had to not show it in case Rome picked up on it, he had no idea what had caused the blackout, just their building going out was understandable, but for the entire city to lose power that was a big one.

A knock on the door made Castle jump, but Rome who could barely hear it anyways was too busy watching the cars far below. Gently Castle put Rome down, the second his feet hit the ground Rome looked up at his dad in confusion.

"Dad?" he called

"Stay here kiddo, someone's at the door."

"Okay," was Rome's reply. Castle patted his head and headed towards the door, his heart beating faster with each step. He knew there was no real basis for this response, but he couldn't help it.

The knocking came again, more persistent this time and slowly Castle reached for the doorknob.

"Mr. Castle, it's Henry sir," Castle couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped him, "sir?"

"Just a second Henry," Castle called, taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves. He glanced back at Rome who was now back at his Legos, his tiny outline just visible in the dark loft.

Taking one final deep breath Castle opened the door to greet the doorman of the building. The hallway was even darker than the loft, creating a very eerie, almost horror movie atmosphere, something Castle would normally be highly amused by, but not this time around.

"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Castle," Henry said quickly "I'm just going door to door checking on everyone in the building. Are you and the little ones alright?" he added

"Rome and I are good, my mother is bringing Alexis home," Castle explained, he paused and looked down the hall to the doorway to the stairs hoping to see Alexis and Martha emerging from there. "I don't suppose you have any idea what's going on do you?"

"No idea sir, but I heard that it's not just SoHo Mr. Castle, it's not even just citywide, it's hit the whole east coast into even Canada. Least that's what the radio was saying. It was happening in sequences, small at first then bam took out the city."

"No kidding," Castle whispered "so much for the Yankees game, unless Baltimore was spared,"

"I doubt it, Sir." Henry replied laughing a little, he was about to add to that when he stopped as his radio began cackling.

"Henry come in Henry, it's Ray you copy?"

"Excuse me, Mr. Castle," Henry said politely he moved away from the doorway "go for Henry, what's up Ray?"

"Stuck elevator," Ray replied and Castle's stomach dropped a bit as he followed Henry into the hallway, he glanced behind him and nodded with satisfaction that he could still see Rome's outline. "Made it up two floors before the power went."

"Anyone inside?" Henry asked

"Yeah, two occupants, I think it's Mr. Castle's mother and his daughter." Ray explained, "I think we can get them out, but I'm going to need help down here on two."

Henry looked at Castle sympathetically and tried to reassure the writer

"Don't worry Mr. Castle," he exclaimed running towards the stairs "we'll get them out in a jiffy,"

Castle took a deep breath and nodded, he had no doubt of that, Henry and Ray had always taken great care of the Castle family and had done so since Castle first bought the loft and it had continued as each of his kids were born and brought home.

Henry was the day and evening doorman, while Ray's nephew Connor handled the not so steady overnight duty. But both Henry and Connor worked closely with Ray the superintendent when it came to maintenance in the building.

Even so, Castle knew Alexis was going to be terrified and he needed to be there to calm her down as the pair worked, Martha would do all she could to keep the eight-year-old calm, but even still Martha herself might be panicking as well.

"Doc," he called turning back into the loft "kiddo we have to go rescue your sister and gra-" he stopped midsentence, Rome wasn't playing with his Legos anymore and he wasn't at the window either. "Doc?" Castle called straining his eyes as he looked around the very quiet loft.

There was no normal sounds, no fridge running, no computer whirling, nothing, it was so quiet that Castle could even hear the cars down below.

Castle blinked and slowly and carefully made his way into the kitchen to grab the flashlight. He shined it around looking for Rome and began the search, Rome loved hide and seek and was very good at the game, finding the most compact and sometimes obscure places to hide, so Castle began checking his usual haunts of the first floor. He checked under his desk in the office, under his bed, the front closet, and under the cabinets in the kitchen, Rome wasn't in any of them.

So Castle turned his attention to upstairs where Rome and Alexis' bedrooms were. First, he checked Rome's room, the most obvious place up there; he checked under Rome's new bunk beds, his closet, his table, even the blanket/pillow fort he had erected a few days before. It was an impressive structure one which Rome had both played in and fallen asleep in. But he wasn't in any of those hiding spots, he wasn't hiding in the bathroom he shared with Alexis and wasn't hiding in his sister's room, Castle had searched the entire loft, Rome was nowhere to be found and now Castle could really start to panic.

For a first in a long time, Castle felt at a loss and torn, he knew Alexis was probably scared to death and needed him, but at the same time Rome was possibly wandering around in the dark lost somewhere in the building, at least Alexis has Martha with her, Rome was going solo. Then again, what if Rome hadn't left the loft? What if he was still in the loft and just hiding really well, or again that worst-case scenario…what if he had left the loft?

Knowing he couldn't just stand there and do nothing, Castle ran to the stairs and went to down two levels below the loft, there were very few tenants in their building nearly all were on the second floor, including neighbors that had known the Castle family since he had first purchased the loft before Alexis was born. He just hoped they were home.

Mr. and Mrs. Hall who were in the late sixties had lived in the building longer than anyone else of the six occupied apartments and loved Rome and Alexis like their own grandkids. Mrs. Hall answered the door cautiously when Castle knocked and smiled wide when she realized who it was.

"Rick!" she exclaimed "enjoying the blackout dear. I don't think it would be so bad if it didn't take the air conditioner with it."

"Nancy, I have a favor to ask you, is Bill home too?"

"Yes he is, we were just setting the table for dinner when the lights went out, Henry said it wasn't a transformer that whatever it was took out the entire city.,"

"He told me the same thing, look, Nancy, Alexis is stuck in the elevator with my mother and Rome...I don't know if he got scared or if he's just being noisy but he's wandered off."

"Whatever do you mean wandered off," Nancy asked, her voice full of concern

"I was talking to Henry about the elevator, I turned around to get Rome so we could go to Alexis and he was gone, I looked through the entire loft but there's no sign of him and I don't know how much he can really hear right now, the doctor just adjusted his hearing aids the other day and he was really having trouble."

"Oh the poor dear," Nancy cooed she turned to look into her own apartment "Bill, come here quick!" seconds later Mr. Hall appeared in the doorway

"Rick, everything okay?" he asked

"Rome is missing," Nancy explained "and Alexis and Martha are stuck in the elevator,"

"Missing?" Bill asked

"I looked everywhere I could in the loft, but it's so dark I might have missed him, he's either playing hide and go seek and as usually doing it very well or he got curious about the blackout and wandered out of the loft to check it out. I was wondering if one of you could help me look for him and one of you stay in the loft just in case he is in there?"

"Of course Rick anything we can do for you guys," Bill replied, he walked back into his apartment and returned with three very bright LED flashlights and a lantern. "Our grandkids slept over last week and played camping in the living room, they left this behind, but it gives off a decent amount of light," Bill explained

"I will go to the loft and have a look around," Nancy added "Rick, Bill will start searching for Rome, you go check on Alexis and Martha,"

Bill nodded

"He won't be able to get too far Rick like you said he was probably curious about the blackout and is checking out the building."

Castle nodded

"I appreciate the help,"

"Of course," Nancy smiled and squeezed Castle's arm before walking to the elevator,

"Uh, dear," Bill called grinning and Nancy shook her head at her mistake

"Oops," she said smiling and went to the stairs

"I'll start in the lobby and work my way up," Bill replied patting Castle's arm.

Castle's face went pale he hadn't even thought about the lobby, what if Rome had gotten down there and gone outside,

"Oh god the lobby," Castle breathed

Bill smiled gently

"Don't you worry about him getting outside Rick," Bill assured his neighbor "the last time we had a blackout this bad, way before you folks moved into the building the first thing Henry did was lock the main doors and put Connor in charge of the door, no one in or out of the building unless they belong here. Checked ID's and everything if he didn't recognize anyone. Did it to me even, Connor won't let Rome out I promise."

Castle nodded, Connor was the superintendent's nephew and had worked as Henry's assistant since before Castle had moved in. Hoping that Bill was right, Castle took a deep breath and headed towards the stairs to find Henry and check on Alexis and Martha.

Rome meanwhile was trying to be brave, but he was pretty sure he was lost in the building. When Henry had come knocking at the door Rome had been a little afraid until his dad had opened the door and Rome found out who it was. But as his dad and Henry talked, Rome realized he had to use the bathroom, he knew it was impolite to interrupt his dad when he was talking especially if he was talking to Henry who might know why the loft was dark, but Rome was a little nervous to go by himself, he wasn't scared of the dark, but he wasn't going to go upstairs by himself that was just too scary, so he went through the office to use his dad's bathroom.

When he was finished he knew he was supposed to flush, but he hesitated, the flushing noise attracted monsters, everyone knew that. It wasn't so bad when the lights were on, lights usually kept monsters away, but it was very dark in the loft now and there was no lights to stop the monsters from coming after him.

So Rome walked over to the sink and lifted himself up onto the counter to wash his hands, usually, his dad had as a stool for him to use, but Rome could barely see anything and didn't even want to try looking for it, afraid that instead of the wooden stool he might feel something furry or even worse…scaly. He didn't think his dad would let any monsters be in there, but there was always a chance they could be hiding in the bathroom.

Carefully Rome washed his hands like he was supposed to and when he was finished he made sure to dry them very good before walking out of the bathroom. He stopped at the doorway and went back into his dad's office where he ducked under the desk because he knew he had left a couple of matchbox cars under there and he didn't want his dad to get hurt if he stepped on them. Once he had piled the cars in his pockets Rome headed out to the family room, he didn't see his dad anywhere.

"Daddy?" He whispered as loud as he dared, he didn't want any monsters to hear him. He looked around as best he could realize in horror that the front door was wide open, he ran out into the hallway and went to the elevator "daddy where are you?" He called again and began frantically pressing the down button on the elevator but it never came.

The lights in the hallway made the hall scarier than the total darkness of the loft, it was not comforting, and instead of no shadows like in the loft now all Rome saw was shadows moving up and down the hallway. Rome was really feeling scared now especially when the shadow opened the door to the stairs and walked through.

It took a few seconds, but Rome quickly realized that wait that couldn't have been a shadow just had been his dad! Rome started to run after him but stopped at the door to the stairs. Rome knew he wasn't supposed to leave the loft by himself, but he also knew he had to catch up to his dad.

He pulled the door open and looked into the dimly lit stairwell.

"Daddy?" He whispered, his voice quivering with fear "daddy, wait for me..."

Rome took a timid step forward before he ran back into the loft and ran up the stairs to his bedroom.

Inside his blanket fort, he deposited his matchbox cars and picked up Balto. Balto wasn't a grown-up but he was still a wolf and it meant that Rome wasn't all by himself and Balto could protect him if the stairwell got too scary.

Now after all that Rome was in an unfamiliar part of the building, at least he was pretty sure it was unfamiliar. The first flight of steps down had been glowing, it was hard to see, but at least Rome could see a little bit, now that he was further down, where the lobby should be, it was very dark and he was very sure he could see a big monster coming from down the hallway and it was getting closer.

Up on the third floor Castle was kneeling down on the floor talking to Alexis and Martha through the closed elevator door. Considering the situation Alexis was handling it pretty well, Martha was keeping her as calm as she could, and knowing that her dad was on the other side of that door made it a little easier, especially knowing that so many people were hard at work trying to get them out.

"Daddy, are we getting out soon?" Alexis asked, clearly trying not to be whiney, but Castle could tell she was reaching that point.

"Soon Pumpkin," he paused and looked at his watch "sweetie I have to go check on your brother, can you be a brave girl and be good for Gram. I'll be right back I promise,"

There was a long pause before Castle heard a quiet sniff

"Okay daddy," Alexis replied and it broke Castle's heart, but he had to search for Rome and he definitely couldn't tell Alexis that was the real reason he was leaving temporarily. Not only would it have scared Alexis, but his mother could potentially overreact and scare both of them.

"I'll be back as quick as I can okay, Henry and Ray are working to get you guys out, they'll be right here if you need anything while I'm gone."

Castle looked at Henry who nodded, trying to reassure the mystery writer that they had everything under control as he ran towards the stairs to check with Nancy to see if she had found Rome in the loft.

As he was heading into the stairwell Castle stopped, the beam from his flashlight caught his attention. Sitting on the first step heading down was one of Rome's hearing aids. He was still getting used to the devices and one of his main complaints about them was that they made his ears itch, so more often than not Castle would find the devices in random spots throughout the loft. The moment the device got itchy, Rome would take it off and try to hide it, going with the idea that if he couldn't find it, he didn't have to wear it.

But seeing the single hearing aid on the step made Castle realize that Rome had gone downstairs…to the basement of the apartment, taking a deep breath Castle carefully headed down the stairs.

Rome hugged Balto close but took a brave step forward, he wasn't sure he was going the right way or not, he had seen a shadow come this way and just thought it was his dad. But now he wasn't all that sure he had gone the right way, he had never been down here before and it was super dark.

"Daddy?" he called straining his eyes to look at the shadows before he looked down at Balto "Balto do you see daddy?" he made Balto shake his head "me neither, I don't know maybe he didn't come down here," Rome paused and took a deep breath "maybe we should go back upstairs and wait for Gram and Lexis," now he made Balto nod, Rome returned the nod and looked around "um, Balto, do you know how to get back?"

Rome always pretended Balto could talk so he knew exactly what the stuffed wolf would say:

'No Doc, I thought you did,'

"Uh oh," Rome replied, "I think we're in a lot of trouble Balto, a lot, lot, lot of trouble," he paused as he felt click on the cement floor, like footsteps coming closer. "Balto can you feel that?" again he made Balto nod.

Part of Rome felt like he should investigate the footsteps, but at the same time, he had been very lucky that he hadn't run into any monsters, but that might change. The footsteps were coming closer and Rome could see a light flashing back and forth and Rome made the decision to hide, holding Balto tight he crawled behind some boxes and tried to stay very quiet.

The footsteps were right near the boxes now and they stopped so Rome wasn't sure how close they were now, he closed his eyes tight, hoping to go by the idea that if he couldn't see someone, they couldn't see him and it must have worked because he felt the footsteps walking away, carefully Rome crawled out from behind the boxes and looked down the hall, he could see the outline of the person and recognized the outline instantly.

He scrambled to his feet and ran at the person and jumped at them.

Castle who wasn't even sure Rome was down in the basement felt his panic level rising, he had been checking every spot he could think of down here and still hadn't found Rome…so needless to say he was so focused so intent that he didn't hear the little footsteps running up behind him and couldn't help the scream that escaped him as a tiny body slammed into him.

"Rome?" he stuttered looking down "oh god, Doc," he picked Rome up and held him close "kiddo, what are you doing down here?" he asked

"I was looking for you daddy," Rome replied "I…I'm sorry," Castle took a deep breath and hugged Rome tight rocking him back and forth "daddy are you mad at me?"

"No kiddo, no," Castle explained "I was just worried, have you been down here the whole time?" he asked carrying Rome towards the stairs, Rome snuggled close to his dad's neck and held on tight, with Balto gripped tightly in his other hand

"No daddy, I don't think so," he looked around "is Lexis home yet?" Castle laughed a little and Rome looked at him confused

"Kiddo, I want to hear all about your adventure tonight, but first we have to get your sister out of the elevator."

x-x-x-x

Castle chuckled silently to himself at the memory as he shut the water off and put the bowls on the drying rack, he turned around and jumped at seeing an outline standing near the kitchen.

"Rome," he called, turning on the light over the sink "kiddo what are you doing? You scared the heck out of me,"

Rome shrugged and grinned apologetically

"Sorry," he replied signing Castle took a deep breath and chuckled

"Don't worry about it kiddo, I've just got to put bells on you or something," he paused "do you need a drink?"

Rome shook his head

"No, just…I didn't, I just…I just wanted to say thank you for this," he nodded at his sleeping friends "it feels really awesome to have things back to normal like this,"

"You're very welcome kiddo," he paused and hugged Rome tight "Go back to bed okay, I'll make pancakes tomorrow for everyone,"

"Night dad,"

"Nigh Doc," Castle smiled and watched as Rome made his way over his friends and snuggled deep into the blankets, Rome was right it was nice that things were getting back to normal, just like the crisis with the 2003 Blackout, once they had gotten Alexis and Martha out of the elevator of course.


End file.
